A Universal Galaxy Ruptures
by Halo-Guy Fan
Summary: Multiple crossovers JC's Avatar, Star Wars, Halo, Mass Effect, and more. Ch.7: The Invasion of Gothis - The UNSC has launched a counter attack against the Turians. Their going to Gothis and their bringing some extra help.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

**100,000 B.C.E.:** The Forerunners fire the Halo array wiping out all sentient life in the Milky Way Galaxy and stopping the Flood.

**5th Century Earth:** Hungarian warlord Alexander Corvinus is the only remaining survivor of a lethal plague that wipes out everyone in his village. In him the infection is able to mutate and mold him into the first Immortal. His twin sons Marcus and William are born.

**6th Century Earth:** William, bitten by a wolf, mutates and becomes the first Werewolf, and later, Marcus, bitten by a bat, becomes the first Vampire. Marcus turns a dying Hungarian warlord named Viktor into a Vampire in order to create an army of Vampires to hunt down and capture William who is unable to control his rage and is unable to change back. The disease inside William is so potent that his victims are unable to take human form again until death, his bite could also cause his victims to transform postmortem. Marcus also turns a female named Amelia for unknown reasons. Marcus, Viktor, and Amelia become the three Vampire elders and form the first Vampire Coven.

**1202 AD:** William is finally captured but Viktor and Amelia betray Marcus and imprison William. They don't kill him believing that if they did William's demise would bring the death of all Werewolves, including those they use as slaves, with the same rule allegedly applying to the Vampires if they killed Marcus. This was in fact a clever lie told by Marcus to protect his brother's life, as well as his own. William remained imprisoned for several centuries afterward. The Vampire elders set up the "Chain". The Chain served three functions: first, an ingenious power-sharing arrangement among the three Elders, avoiding conflict among them by ensuring that only one of them was in command in any given century; and second, to give each Elder a much-needed respite from the demands of eternity; and the third was to keep Marcus from ever getting the chance to free his twin brother.

**1207 AD:** Lucian is born to an imprisoned Werewolf in the Vampires' dungeon. The astounding fact is that he is born in human form.

**1218 AD:** Viktor begins to use Lucian to create a second breed of Werewolves called Lycans; Werewolf, but also human. Since the Lycans were able to control their transformations Viktor turned them into slaves to work for and guard the Vampires in the daylight hours.

**1402 AD:** Lucian falls in love with Viktor's daughter Sonja and the two marry in secret. Sonja is impregnated by Lucian. Viktor finds out and attempt's to kill Lucian and Sonja, but due to inside help they manage to escape. Lucian returns with an army of free and newly turned Lycans and William's breed and sacks the Vampire stronghold. The war between Vampires and Lycans begins. Sonja gives birth to a hybrid child, a son named Xavier.

**May 1502:** Sonja gives birth to her second child, a daughter named Lily.

**October 24,1945:** The United Nations is formed in response to World War II. It would centuries later become known as the United Nations Space Command, or the UNSC.

**October 2003:** A Vampire named Selene uncovers Lucian's plot to use a human named Michael Corvin to turn himself into a hybrid. Selene who has fallen in love with Michael awakens Viktor and attempts to stop it while smuggling Michael out. Michael gets shot with silver nitrate by Kraven who is moments later killed by Lucian, but not before revealing to Selene that it was Viktor not the Lycans who killed her family all those centuries ago. In order to save Michael's life Selene bites him mixing her Vampire strain with the Lycan strain given to him when Lucian bit him two nights ago, this officially turns Michael into a Hybrid. Lucian decides to stay a Lycan. Events from **Underworld Evolution **take place.

**April 2004:** Humanity learns of the existence of Vampires and Lycans. This leads to the Purges, a series of mass killings against the Lycans and Vampires. Lucian and his Lycan followers take shelter in a private owned Lycan company called Antigen. Lucian offers Selene and Michael protection.

**July 2004:** Selene gives birth to her daughter Eve.

**June 2016:** After twelve years of research and tests using hybrid DNA from Eve and Michael, Antigen scientists have created a drug that will hopefully make Lycans immune to silver. Lucian tests they drug and goes through multiple treatments and injections. The results are that Lucian is successfully transformed into a Super Lycan. Along with vast increases in strength, muscle mass, self-healing, stamina, and speed the drug is proven to give Lycans immunity to silver, or at the very least a skin deep immunity. Before the drug can be shipped globally Hungarian military forces attack. INTERPOL (UN Intelligence) interferes and offers to store Lucian and his family, Selene, Michael, Eve, and all the surviving Lycans and Vampires at secure locations in cryogenic sleep under their protection until public terror over their existence calms down. In return INTERPOL has free rein to experiment with them and Antigen must be destroyed. They all reluctantly except. INTERPOL would later become the Office on Naval Intelligence or ONI in the centuries to come.

**2164-2170:** The Interplanetary war comes to an end. This results in the rise of the UEG (United Earth Government), the changing of the United Nations into the United Nations Space Command, and the rise of ONI.

**April 2291:** The **Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine** (or slip space drive) is developed by Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa. This allows humanity to achieve faster-than-light interstellar travel.

**March 05, 2330:** After studying the Vampires and Lycans method of blood memories ONI has finally succeeded in creating a device that replicates this feat called the Animus, it basically was able to read a subject's genetic memory, and project it onto an external screen in three dimensions.

**January 01,2335:** ONI has located two suitable planets on which the Lycans and Vampires can live on. The first one located third closet to the systems sun is very similar to Earth only with more forests and mountains. The second is the fifth planet from the sun behind a giant asteroid field. With a little terraforming to the planet's atmosphere to block out most of the suns ultraviolet light, the planet would be perfect for Vampires to colonize.

**January 02,2335:** ONI awakens Lucian and the others from there 319 year deep freeze. By using the Animus for a few weeks they are able to learn all that has happened while they were asleep. After learning about the chosen planets they can live on both species of Immortals decide to relocate for their own good. Though Selene and Eve decide to go with Michael to the Lycans planet. The Phoenix-class Colony ships are given to them to keep and a UNSC colony is founded in the system as well in order for the UNSC to associate with the Immortals and to spy on them from a distance.

**2517: ONI **starts the Spartan II program to combat the ever rising threat of the Insurrectionists. Doctor Catherine Elizabeth Halsey is put in charge of the project and gathers 150 suitable candidates, but budget cuts cut the number of candidates in half. Seventy-five children, five and six years old and of both sexes, were kidnapped from their homes to take part in the program. In order to preserve the program's secrecy, the children were replaced by flash clones which would die soon afterwards due to numerous medical complications associated with flash-cloning a human being. Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez is put in charge of training along with some volunteer Vampires and Lycans. By studying the unique physiology of the Immortals Doctor Halsey is able to improve her Spartans passed here original expectations, her Spartans will be get an additional increase in strength, speed, eyesight and hearing, as well as mild healing factor.

**2525: **Thirty-one years of war with the Insurrectionists has proven hard on the UNSC. Millions of lives, including civilians, have been lost. Although the Spartans have proved effective, the UNSC searches for a way to end the war quickly. There's an old saying "**Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it**"'. That will soon come to a horrifying truth. For on the horizon something dark awaits that will test humanities very right to exist in the galaxy.


	2. Chapter 2: The Human-Covenant War

**A/N This is my first fan fic so I hope people like it. This is not just a ME/Halo crossover but also has several other SCI-FI universes mixed in, including Star Wars and Transformers. **

**I am welcome to ideas and suggestions regarding things to add.**

**I also wanted to apologize for the Underworld background taking up most of the last chapter. I just felt the need to explain some things and how it fits into the Halo universe in my story. **

**Halo, Mas Effect and the others belong to their respected owners.**

* * *

**February 3, 2525:** Humanity has been in a state of civil war with the Insurrectionists for about thirty-one years. During this time the UNSC makes first contact with an alliance of alien species called the Covenant over the Outer colony world of **Harvest**. The Human-Covenant War begins.

**November 27, 2525: **The Battle of **Chi Ceti** IV takes place between the UNSC Stalwart-class Frigate**_ Commonwealth_** and a Covenant CRS-class Light Cruiser _**Unrelenting**_. The **_Commonwealth _**suffers heavy damage but is able to disable the Covenant ship. Three members of Spartan II Blue Team Master Chief John-117, Kelly-087, and Samuel-034 are sent to destroy the ship and as a test of the new MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor. Blue Team succeeds and Samuel-034 survives after his armor is almost compromised.

**February 13, 2526:** Almost all leaders of the Insurrectionists agree to peace with the UNSC after the Covenant glass the Outer colony** Bliss**. They pledge all their men, ships, and resources to the war.

**March 1, 2526: **Vice Admiral Preston Jeremiah Cole leads the UNSC Battle Group X-Ray along with his personal flagship the Valiant-class Super-heavy Cruiser _**Everest **_arrive to retake **Harvest. **Admiral Cole wins the battle at the cost of 2/3 of his fleet. This proved the Covenant could be beaten, but at a large cost.

**February 4, 2531: **The Harvest Campaign has gone on for five years with multiple battles in space and on the planet. Despite all the UNSCs hard and valiant fighting the Covenant have glassed most of the planet along with most of the human forces. While all this was going on the Covenant were launching multiple attacks across the Outer colonies and are leaking into the Inner colonies. But the campaign was not a total loss, Lieutenant Jacob Keyes accidentally created a countermeasure for the Covenants plasma torpedoes by using the jamming dishes on his ships meant to disrupt magnetic scanners and sensors, to break apart to magnetic fields holding the torpedoes together. If the disruption field is strong enough it can destroy the magnetic field holding the plasma torpedo together or the torpedo losses its tracking ability. It even works on the Covenants energy projectors to a lesser extent. This greatly levels the playing field for the UNSC.

**February 5, 2531: **The Covenant uncover a Forerunner structure on Harvest. There they find a holographic map that points them to the UNSC Outer colony world of **Arcadia**. Professor Ellen Anders of the _**UNSC Spirit of **__**Fire**_ recommends to its commander Captain James Cutter that they should pursue. Cutter agrees and the **_Spirit of Fire _**departs for **Arcadia **in hot pursuit.

**February 9, 2531: **Upon reaching **Arcadia**, two Covenant CCS-class Battlecruisers exit slipspace. The **_Spirit of Fir_**_e _arrived soon after. Four Halcyon-class Light Cruisers(the **UNSC ****_Belfast_**, _**UNSC Texas**_, _**UNSC Pillar of Autumn**_, and _**UNSC **__**Armstrong**_) engaged the two ships immediately, catching one of them with its shields down and destroying it. However, the UNSC force suffered for its part in the battle. The **_Texas_** and **_Belfast_** were both taken down, the _**Armstrong**_ was venting atmosphere due to damage, and the **_Autumn _**suffered severe damage before being assisted by the **_Spirit of Fire_**. On the surface the Covenant find another set of ruins that lead them to **Shield** **0459, **a world created by the Forerunners. The Prophet of Regret sends Arbiter Ripa 'Moramee to capture Professor Anders so he can use her to activate the armada of Forerunner warships on the planet and use them to destroy humanity. Captain Cutter immediately recalled all his remaining forces and pursued the Covenant along with the _**UNSC**_ **Armstrong **which had made hasty repairs.

**February 23, 2531:** The_** Spirit of Fire and Armstrong **_arrive at the Shield World. Spartan II Red Team and Marine Forces lead by Sergeant John Forge are deployed to rescue Professor Anders. On the surface the force battles not only Covenant by also parasite like creatures. The _**Spirit's **_A.I Serina located Anders' signal, which was apparently in the middle of an ocean. While the **_Spirit_** was hovering over the sea, the doors of a huge submerged entry into the planet opened. The **_Spirit of Fire_** became locked into a powerful docking mechanism and inevitably began a controlled 'fall' into the rift. After extracting all UNSC forces, the **_Spirit of Fire_** began her descent and emerged into the interior of the Shield World. In the inner Dyson Sphere of the Shield World, the Spirit of Fire was immediately on a collision course with a Covenant Destroyer. Despite hard course corrections, the two ships impacted, with a large section of the **_Spirit_** being violently sheared off. Escaping from the Destroyer, the _**Spirit's**_ A.I, Serina, detected Anders' signal. Sergeant Forge, along with Spartan Red Team, were deployed to the signal's apparent source on the Shield World's inner surface. Imprisoned in the Apex, Anders was forced by the Arbiter to activate the ancient artifact, powering up a huge fleet of Forerunner ships. In their religious fervor, her guards were distracted and Anders used a Transporter pad to return to the surface, where she was rescued by Forge. A plan was then hatched to stop the Covenant from using the Forerunners ships. The UNSC forces would use the still intact slipspace drive on the shipwrecked remains of the _**Armstrong **_to create an explosion so powerful it would collapse the miniature artificial star inside the Shield World, completely obliterating the installation. Spartan Red Team and Lieutenant John Forge transport the slipspace drive to the Apex's control center were Read Team engaged the Elite Honor Guards and Sergeant Forge kills Arbiter Ripa 'Moramee. The makeshift bomb is placed and its remote detonation is set to go. As the sun slowly went supernova, the **_Spirit _****_of Fire_** was caught in its increasing Gravity Well. Slingshotting around the sun, the **_Spirit_** was able to break away from the gravity well and escape through the portal, and far enough from the Shield World not to be caught in the Supernova's blast radius and into slipspace.

**February 12, 2535: **Master Chief's homewolrd **Jericho VII** is glassed by the Covenant. Many of the orphans from the planet would become Spartan III's.

**July 2, 2535: **The Covenant attacks Algolis. A team of engineers were sent to a UNSC testing facility to enact the **Cole Protocol**, destroying navigation data and a prototype suit of power armor. However, one Marine engineer, " Ghost", went against orders and equipped the armor, knowing it was the only way both the Marines and the civilians would be able to escape the planet. Ghost destroyed all the Covenants ground forces while sustaining heavy damage to the armor and great injury to himself. The armor was on a countdown timer to self-destruct, but it needed a voice command to complete the action. After destroying all Covenant forces Ghost died of his injuries before he could give the command. Thus the armor survived to later be picked up by the UNSC for continued production.

**2536: **The first team of Spartan III's Alpha Company is activated. The SPARTAN-III's were designed to be better trained, cheaper, and expendable. They would be trained in companies of 300 to 330 at a time, and then sent on suicide missions that the UNSC could not accomplish even with the elite Orbital Drop Shock Troopers(ODSTs). Though the casualty rates of the SPARTAN-III's stood at 100 percent on some missions, to ONI, all the operations were strategic successes. They were trading lives for time against the larger and technologically superior Covenant Empire.

**August 2, 2537: **OPERATION: PROMETHEUS, a high-risk mission ordered by ONI. The mission took place on K7-49, a volcanic asteroid which served as a Covenant shipyard. The shipyard was destroyed, all of Alpha Company confirmed KIA.

**December 7, 2540: **The Covenant reach the Immortal system. After scanning the system they discover the UNSC colony **New ****Beginnings**. They also discover the new Lycan and Vampire homeworlds but mistake them for UNSC worlds. Fleetmaster Thel 'Vadam splits his force of 30 ships into 1/3 and sends 9 _CCS-_class Battlecruisers and his own CAS-Assault Carrier to **New** **Beginnings,** 10 _SDV_-class Heavy Corvettes to **AUKOC **(the Lycan homeworld), and 10 CRS-class Light Cruisers to **Ördögház** (the Vampire homeworld). The attacks go well at first until Thel starts to get reports from his Elites of humans changing into creatures on the Lycan world and reports from the Jackals about humans who move so fast even their eyes can't track them in the darkness. The Lycans and Vampires prove to be very effective against Covenant ground forces. Lycans can out maneuver most Elites and their strong enough to wrestle with Zealots. Jiralhanae prove to be able to beat an average Lycan in strength but have trouble facing to few Super Lycans they come across. As for the Vampires, with their world virtually covered in complete darkness they can use their superior speed to pick off the Grunts and Jackals at their leisure, even Elites have trouble keeping up with their movements. The only problem either species is having is with the Hunters, they have to resort to firepower with them. Neither let the **Phoenix-class Colony Ships** they were given go to waste. While they hadn't been able to build much they had been able to build enough anti-ship and anti-air cannons to destroy or cripple the Covenant Corvettes and Light Cruisers. At the human colony of **New Beginnings **UNSC reinforcements had arrived and had managed to drive the Covenant off. After seeing and hearing how effective the Lycans and Vampires were against the Covenant HIGH COM asked them to join the war saying that now the Covenant know about them and as far as they know or care Lycans and Vampires are just humans. Lucian says he and his Lycans will fight but is worried about what will happen should the Covenant return, the Vampire Council with Selene's friend David at its head says the same thing. Cindy, the A.I of the **_UNSC_**_ **Atlantic,**_informs them that she deleted the navigation information pointing to the Immortal System from the surviving Covenant ships computers. Unless the UNSC losses the war they have nothing to fear about the Covenant returning soon. Both sides then give their support and the soldiers are off for hardcore military training.

**April 18, 2543: **Admiral Cole's Last Stand.

**March 9, 2545:** Doctor Halsey has recreated and perfected the old Antigen drug for Lycans. It will not turn every Lycan into a Super Lycan, that will only happen to those who have the potential, but it will unlock the full Lycans DNA giving them increased strength, speed, muscle mass, even silver resistance. She has also created a variation of her Spartan armor and has managed to somehow make it extremely flexible, so flexible that it can be worn underneath a Lycans clothes and when it changes into its Lycan form the armor will stretch and shape itself to fit the Lycan. As for the Vampires, she managed by studying Selene and David by created an enzyme which once taken will mutate the Vampires into no longer being overly allergic to sunlight.

**2546:** Battle of Sargasso, Admiral Gregory White revolutionizes space-naval warfare with tactics described as space-guerrilla warfare.

**January 8, 2552:** UNSC fakes the destruction of the Forerunner A.I know as "The Knowing" during the Battle of **Ariel**. The Covenant leave without bothering to glass the planet. Humanity takes the A.I to Earth and starts to learn from the A.I. It tells them the location of a Forerunner artifact on Reach and Earth.

**July 24-August 30, 2552:** A large Covenant Armada of over 800 ships, half of them CCS-class Battlecruisers, is detected heading towards** Reach**. The defenses are prepared and the Colonists decide to all fight rather than flee. The UNSC fleet manages to hold their ground as the battle rages for weeks as both sides send reinforcements almost continually. Spartan II Black Team is successful with their mission on the nearby Colony world of **Verge** and arrive to help. Lycans and Vampires arrive on board Carriers and continue to prove effective, especially when the virus in their bites are deadly to all the Covenants ground forces. The _**Spirit of Fire **_arrives with Spartan Red Team and Team Omega to help in the battle. Team Omega works with Noble Team and insures they live at the cost of two of their own. Admiral Cole unexpectedly returns after being thought dead with his fully repaired and refit flagship the _**UNSC** **Everest** _along with the last Insurrectionists fleet under the command of his second ex-wife Lyrenne Castilla. The Covenant were forced to retreat and Reach survived with no glassing.

**August 31, 2552: **Admiral Cole was later debriefed by HIGH COM and FLEET COM, during which he stated that he survived his last stand at Viperidae by engaging a largely inaccurate slipspace jump just before the planet exploded. He exited slipspace with his Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine irreparable. Luckily, he reappeared over the planet the last Insurrectionists fleet was using as its base, and even more luckily his ex-wife who was commanding the fleet decided not to kill him. Instead she had his ship repaired and resupplied. His luck reached unimaginable levels when they intercepted the message about the attack on **Reach **and convinced her to come with him to help.

**September 2, 2552: **Doctor Halsey presents John-117 with an A.I created from a flash cloned copy of her own brain named Cortana. The refitted and upgraded **_Pillar of _**_**Autumn **_and a small battle group chase after the Covenant with John-117 aboard.

**September 19 - September 22, 2552: **The Events of Alpha Halo or Installation 04 transpire. the _**Pillar of Autumn **_and Captain Keyes survive and make it back to Earth. Another ship took its place in activating its reactor saying that the **_Autumn_ **was more valuable to the UNSC.

**October 20- November 2, 2552:** A small fleet of Covenant ships led by the High Prophet of Regret jumps into the Sol system. The First Battle of Earth takes place. The Covenant force is slaughtered while the Home Fleet and the Orbital Defense Platforms received minimal losses. However one Assault Carrier, the Prophet of Regret's flagship, manages to slip through the defenses by using its fellow ships as a shield and lands forces in the city of New Mombasa. The Battle of Mombasa takes place as Regret flees via an atmospheric jump, causing widespread damage to the city and nearly destroying the Orbital Elevator, the Master Chief on board the UNSC Frigate **_In Amber Clad _**commanded by Miranda Keyes manages to give chase.

**October 31-November 3, 2552: **At the same time the battle of Earth was happening, a battle had commenced on a Forerunner Shield World claimed by the UEG called **Onyx**, this also happened to be where the Spartan III program to place. Doctor Halsey arrives with all of Blue Team composed of Will-043, Linda-058, Fred-104, Samuel-034, and Kelly-087. Only the Master Chief was not present. The real reason Halsey brought Blue Team to Onyx was to protect them from further war. She planned to put them in side the Shield World to outlast the war safe. The Covenant Second Fleet of Homogeneous Clarity arrived at Onyx under orders to destroy all UNSC forces and recover any Forerunner artifacts. At the conclusion of the battle, Onyx was effectively destroyed, Battlegroup Stalingrad was destroyed with only the Prowler _**UNSC **_**Dusk **escaping, the entire Covenant Fleet and ground force was obliterated, and Doctor Halsey, Linda-058, Fred-104, Samuel-034, Kelly-087, Kurt-051, Will-043, Spartan III Team Katana, and Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez escaped to the safety of the Shield World within the Micro Dyson Sphere. Will-043 beat a Hunter to death with his bare hands and was saved by Fred-104 when its bond brother turned its assault cannon on him. Kurt-051 was injured and volunteered to stay behind and detonate two FENRIS Nuclear warheads to destroy the Antechamber to stop the Covenant from following them into the Sphere, but the survivors of Spartan III Team Saber throw him through the portal saying "**You always looked out for our survival sir. Now its our turn".**

**November 2**- **November 3, 2552: **The Battle of Installation 05 or Delta Halo transpires. The Master Chief kills the Prophet of Regret. On the Covenant Holy City of **High Charity** the Forerunner A.I Mendicant Bias, who is housed inside the Forerunner Dreadnought that powers High Charity, see's its chance to begin its retribution for its crimes and reveals the truth behind the Human-Covenant War. How the San 'Shyuum or Prophets mistranslated some Forerunner symbols that they thought it meant "Reclamation", but it really meant "Reclaimer", how it told to tell them this when they first met the humans on **Harvest, **and that to keep their power over the Covenant they told all their blind followers a bunch of lies and commanded them to wipe out humanity. It also added that the Prophets planed to put the Brutes in charge to replace the Elites once they gave the order for their genocide.

**November 4, 2552:** To say that everyone was outraged would be an understatement. All of **High Charity** became a battle field. Miranda Keyes seeing an opportunity to end the war offered any species of the Covenant mercy and forgiveness if they helped bring this war to an end and help the UNSC. Many took her up on her offer. The Gravemind on the Halo tried to take advantage of the chaos by sending in hundreds of Flood forms aboard the infected Frigate **_In Amber_ _Clad._ **ButBias foresaw this so he took control of **High Charity**, moved it out of the _**In**_ _**Amber Clad's**_ slipspace path so it would miss, and then used the stations powerful defenses to destroy the ship. In the end the Prophet of Mercy was killed and the San 'Shyuum council was disbanded until further notice. Tartarus, the Head Chieftain of the Jiralhanae, was slain by Arbiter Thel Vadam, and the Prophet of Truth managed to escape with 3 Assault Carriers and 27 Battlecruisers. After gaining control of High Charity Arbiter Thel Vadam, the unanimously appointed leader of the Elites, had every ship under his control fire and destroy the ring and the flood on it. A message was sent out all through out Covenant space and to every Covenant fleet telling them what happened and a recording of what Mendicant Bias had said. He then agreed to go to Earth to help track down Truth and his remaining followers and to discus peace. Mendicant Bias told Miranda Keyes that he would take humanity to the **Ark**.

**November 7, 2552: **The Sangheili Fleet of Retribution and the Fleet of New Faith, 25 ships in total, arrive at **Earth** to discus peace and to come up with a plan to find Truth. Finding Truth turned out to be the easy part as his fleet arrived at Earth to activate and enter the portal device unearthed by the UNSC months ago. The fleet had grown in size from 3 Assault Carriers and 27 Battlecruisers to 5 Assault Carriers and 40 Battlecruisers, no doubt from gathering all of his remaining loyalist forces. Truth sends 2 of his Assault Carriers and 13 Battlecruisers as shields for his remaining ships to make it down to Earth. Covenant ground and air forces quickly launched and engaged the Marine forces at the portal. John-117, the Arbiter, and a battalion of Marines and Sangheili Ultras deploy with armor support to stop Truth. Just as all of Truth's deployed forces are defeated said prophet activates the portal and sends his remaining fleet into it. Before any sort of plan to pursue can be made another ship, a _CCS_-class Battlecruiser jumps out of slipspace and crashes into the city of Voi. Flood spill out and start to infect both the dead and the living. After fighting their way to an extraction Pelican the Arbiter orders Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum to glass Voi before the flood can spread but only the city, it is done. Aboard a slightly damaged ODP, Cairo Station, the Arbiter along Fleet Admiral Lord Terrance Hood contact **High Charity** and discover that the Gravemind had removed itself from the Halo before they destroyed it. Mendicant Bias reports that the Gravemind is on its way with more flood, enough to infect all of **Earth.** But he also says that if they go through the portal to the **Ark **there is a way to stop it. Newly promoted Commander Miranda Keyes volunteers to take her new ship the Charon-class Light Frigate _**UNSC Forward Unto Dawn**_ through the portal after Truth. The Arbiter volunteers himself and the Fleet of Retribution as well.

**November 8, 2552: **The Fleet of Retribution and the _**Forward Unto Dawn**_enter through the portal and come out at the **Ark,** a massive superstation bigger then **High Charity**, its is described as a massive wheel with a series of eight curved arms, bearing similarities to a sun. Truth's remaining fleet of 3 Assault Carriers and 27 Battlecruisers engages them. When told that they are outnumbered three-to-one Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum says, "**Then it is a fair fight".** The **Battle of the Ark **begins. While the Sangheili fleet engages the Jiralhanae fleet the _**Forward Unto Dawn**_deploys Master Chief Spartan-117, Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, and the ODST 7th Battalion on to the** Ark**. Despite being outnumbered three-to-one in space, the _**Forward Unto** Dawn_ and the Sangheili fleet made short work of the Loyalist space forces, likely due to the Sangheili's remarkable "tactical adeptness", as to the Jiralhanae's "tactical helplessness". On the ground heavy fighting insured. After rescuing several Marine teams the Master Chief and company cleared a landing zone for the **Dawn**. With the space battle won Thel 'Vadam orders all his ships except for the **_Shadow of Intent_ **back to **Earth **before landing. 343 Guilty Spark from Installation 04 appears and seems to want to help them. He leads John-117, Thel, plus a pair of Marines, to the Ark's Cartographer to pinpoint Truth's location. He also shows them that the countless sentinels of the **Ark** have built are rebuilding Instillation 04. After heavy fighting the humans and Sangheili set forth to attack Truth to stop him from activating the rings. An Assault Carrier suddenly appears out of slipspace, scans show it to be heavily infested with flood. It crashes into and badly damaging the **_Shadow of_**_ **Intent**_and proceeds to the **Ark**. As it passes over the unfinished ring another smaller slipspace portalopens and a prowler comes out and fires several nuclear missiles at the flood infested Assault Carrier. Badly damaged the Carrier is forced from its course and crashes into the unfinished ring. The prowler sends a message to the **D****awn **stating that Spartan II Grey Team has returned and is ready to help.

**November 9, 2552:** Johnson, who had disappeared during the assault, was in fact captured by Truth's forces and was being tortured into pressing the final switch to activate the other Halos. With Spartan-117 and the Arbiter too far away to stop Truth, Commander Keyes grabbed a Pelican dropship and crashed into the facility to rescue Johnson, she killed a few Jiralhanae with her shotgun and threw her pistol at Johnson. They blast a few more but are then captured and Johnson is forced to activate the rings. The Master Chief and the Arbiter arrive and deal with the last of Truth's guards. The Arbiter kills Truth while the Chief stops the firing sequence. They all return to the **_Shadow of Intent_ **to regroup and finish the fight with the flood. All remaining human and Sangheili forces head back to **Earth** on the **_Shadow of Intent_ **while Miranda, Johnson, Chief, and the Arbiter take a pelican and move in on the Control Room of the incomplete Halo. The **_Dawn_** was left behind for them to use to escape. By now what was left of the Gravemind had set in deep on the ring and it would be crawling with flood. The four heroes with 343 Guilty Spark made it through waves of Flood to the Control Room. 343 Guilty Spark explained that the new Halo would be ready to fire within days, to which Johnson protested. Guilty Spark informed the three that activating Halo now would destroy both the Ark and the installation, Johnson told him to "deal with it" and prepared to activate the ring. Unwilling to let "his" ring be destroyed again, 343 Guilty Spark went rampant, mortally wounding Johnson and attacking Spartan-117, Miranda, and the Arbiter. However, with the help of a dying Sergeant Johnson and his Spartan Laser, the Master Chief managed to destroy Guilty Spark. Chief than started the firing sequence of the new Halo after Miranda had instructed Cortana to move the ring far enough from the **Ark** so that the resulting blast wouldn't damage it. They all drove back to the **_Dawn_** with Johnson barely alive. Chief and Cortana powered up the _**Dawn's **_engines while Miranda got Johnson to the sickbay and the Arbiter piloted the ship. The **_Dawn_** entered slipspace just as the new Halo fired. However, the slipspace portal collapsed as the _**Dawn** _entered it and while the forward half with the Arbiter, Miranda and Johnson made it to Earth, the rear half fell out of slipspace with Cortana and the Chief floating into the dark abyss. The Battle of the **Ark** ended the Human-Covenant War with both sides declaring a peace treaty. A monument is erected near the remains of Voi in remembrance of those who died in the line of duty including Spartan-117 who is labeled MIA. The Arbiter and his brethren then departed **Earth** for **Sanghelios**.

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**A/N Well I hope you enjoyed it and hopefully my next update will be soon. I know you all probably are expecting me to get to the story next chapter. I'm going to finish up the timeline first and I promise that if its not to long I'll start the story in the same chapter. ****Remember I am always open to suggestions. At least until we get to Mass Effect 1. After that I may stop adding franchises. One thing I'd like your help on is should Noble six be male or female. One a side note to those who don't know ****Aukoc is greeck-it means wolf, and ****Ördögház is the name of the mansion that was the main headquarters of the Vampire Coven in Underworld. I thought they would make fitting names for the new homeworlds of the Lycans and Vampires.**


	3. Chapter 3: Rise of the OSA

**A/N: I'm sorry ****that this took longer than my last two chapters.** **I promise that** this will be the final chapter with a timeline until after first contact with the Citadel Council. It will also feature the introduction of the Star Wars races, G.I JOE, and JC'S Avatar. Some of you who have read HaloMass Effect: Ruptured Universe by **JediSpectre177** may notice similarity's in this chapter and in a few others. I am using his first few chapters as a template to get this story going (Don't worry I asked him) but make no mistake, this story will follow its own path. It will also contain aspects of **Joined Universes, Different Outcomes by** theblazinghope2235 **(Don't worry I asked him).**

**Halo, Mass Effect and the others belong to their respected owners. Some of the features in this chapter go to JediSpectre177 and theblazinghope2235.**

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**Early 2553: **Doctor Catherine Halsey, Linda-058, Fred-104, Samuel-034, Kelly-087, Kurt-051, Will-043, Spartan III Team Katana, and Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez are rescued from the Dyson Sphere by Kilo-5 of ONI. Doctor Halsey is then arrested for hijacking ships and kidnapping a Spartan. Kelly and the other Spartan II's try to defend her but she tells them to stand down. She is later sent to work on the new human flagship the _UNSC Infinity_. ONI leaks the details behind the Spartan II program. The Spartan IV program is started.

**January 2553:** Arbiter Thel 'Vadam begins to visit the various states to finalize a peace treaty with humanity. He argued that too many Sangheili had been lost in the Great Schism, and that Sanghelios had to be rebuilt. This proposal was not well received by all, and civil unrest ensued. The Sangheili had been under the Prophets and relied on them for everything for so long. Without them and the Covenant disbanded many Sangheili had lost their way and were looking for a purpose in life. Dissident Sangheili began to join the Servants of Abiding Truth**, **an old orthodox religious group who opposed the Arbiter led by Avu Med 'Telcam. They believed in the ways of the Covenant and wanted to continue with its vision and humanity's destruction.

**February 2553: **Fleet Admiral Lord Terence Hood arrived on Sanghelios to formalize the cease-fire with the Arbiter. They met in the state of Vadam and formally ended hostilities. Kilo-5 under the new Director of ONI, ex-Spartan Captain Serin Osman, orders make secret contact with the Servant of Abiding Truth. They agreed to arm them with Sangheili weapons in exchange for the Servants leaving humanity alone if they seized power. ONI's true goal was to destabilize Sanghelios. Of course this was done without the UNSC's knowing. The Sangheili Civil War erupts. Admiral Hood arrived in orbit with the _UNSC Infinity_ and offered the Arbiter aid, which he grudgingly accepted. The _Infinity _shoots down 'Telcam's ship _Defender of Faith_ and fired a MAC round directly into the besieging forces outside Vadam Keep. The siege quickly became a route as the Arbiter counter-attacked. 'Telcam and the Servants were able to escape with three frigates intact, along with as many troops, vehicles and supplies the ships could hold.

**August 01********, 2553** -July 18**, 2557**: The Jiralhanae homeworld of Dosiac erupts into full fledged civil tribes are split between those who want to continue the old ways before they meet the Covenant and new idealists who want a better future for the Jiralhanae. The war ends after idealist leader Martin kills the last war tribe left. Martin claims the **Fist of Rukt**, the oldest most powerful gravity hammer, and the title Chieftain of all Jiralhanae. Thus for the first time, the Jiralhanae can say they have a future where they truly know unity, under the new Jiralhanae Empire.

**July 21**, **2557: **After four years of drifting in space the remaining half of the _Forward Unto Dawn_ comes upon an unidentified Forerunner Shield Word later revealed to be called Requiem. Unfortunately a Servants of Abiding Truth, now called the Storm Covenant, fleet is orbiting the planet as well. After being scanned by Requiem UNSC A.I Cortana wakes Master Chief Spartan-117 from cryo-sleep. A gravity well pulls the _Dawn__**, **_and destroys it in the process, as well as the Storm into the planet which Cortana later states the Covenant had been orbiting for three years trying to get inside. Once planet side Cortana confesses to suffering from rampancy. The Master Chief vows to get her back to Earth, find Halsey, and save her life. Cortana picks up a comm signal coming from the _UNSC Infinity _stating it's on its way to the last known location of the _UNSC Forward Unto Dawn_. Trying to save _Infinity_ from getting caught in the gravity well Cortana and the Chief travel to the center of Requiem to deactivate what they believe to be a satellite blocking them from contacting _Infinity_ not knowing that it's really a Dyson Sphere. On the way the Chief fights off legions of Storm Covenant and Forerunner battle A.I called Prometheans. After deactivating the Dyson Sphere they accidentally release a living Forerunner known as **The Didact** who takes control of the Prometheans and promises to wipe out humanity. After escaping from Requiem's core Chief and Cortana watch _Infinity _crash on Requiem.

**July 22, 2557:** After fighting off Storm and Promethean forces, debriefing on _Infinity_, meeting the Librarian, learning about humanity's ancient past, receiving immunity to the composer (the Didact's ultimate weapon), Cortana delving deeper into rampancy, and finally defeating the Didact over Earth after he had destroyed half of New Phoenix, the Master Chief returned to Earth alive and handed Cortana over to the UNSC's scientists to save her before she delved to deep into rampancy.

**February 2558:** The Requiem Campaign begins. Blue Team, once more led by the Master Chief, boards the _Infinity _alongside Noble Team and scores of Spartan IV fireteams for Requiem. Spartan-117 Has been promoted to a new position created just for him, **Master Chief Supreme Commander of the Navy**, and is the leader of all Spartans in the UNSC. Their mission on Requiem is to clear out the Storm Covenant so the UNSC can set up science bases. Captain Thomas Lasky and Commander Sarah Palmer are leading the show. After coming out of slipspace and engaging the entire Storm Fleet, forcing it to flee inside the planet, _Infinity_ launched her compliment of 10 Charon-class light frigates and hundreds of Broadsword fighters. Dozens of Spartan and Marine fireteams are deployed down onto Requiem. After finding a Forerunner artifact that causes power fluctuations throughout _Infinity _and the artifact sucks up Doctor Henry Glassman, Doctor Halsey is summoned to inspect the artifact and fix _Infinity's_ forerunner engines. Intelligence gathered that Fleetmaster Jul 'Mdama, the leader of the Storm Covenant, was on Requiem overseeing operations. He managed to gain access to the comms of Dr. Halsey's data pad and anonymously plied her with questions. When he inquired what she knew of the Librarian, Halsey was so shocked that it aroused suspicion from the nearby Sarah Palmer, who promptly confiscated the data pad and escorted Halsey to the brig. This setback proved of little consequence, however, as Dr. Glassman, who had been captured after being teleported by the artifact to Jul 'Mdama's location, managed to somehow activate the Librarian's crypt. Jul believed that the Librarian would give him Forerunner secrets. He and the nearby Sangheili were awestruck at the spectacle caused by Glassman's activation of the artifact. So awestruck, in fact, that they did not even notice when the doctor backed past them and ran from the 'Mdama discovered that the artifact would only open to a humans touch, he flew into a rage and sent all nearby Sangheili after the escaped scientist, including his lieutenant, Gek. Dr. Glassman was rescued by Spartan IV Gabriel Thorn of Fireteam Majestic. Meanwhile, _Infinity _came under attack by Prometheans via artifact and Dr. Halsey was captured.

With the abduction of Dr. Halsey by enemy forces, Admiral Osman, head of ONI, ordered Lasky to assassinate Halsey lest the Covenant glean any sensitive intel from her. Sarah Palmer was deployed from _Infinity _despite Lasky's admonishments to the contrary. As soon as she was out of earshot Lasky contacted Fireteam Majestic and asked them to rescue Dr. Halsey, without telling them that Palmer was en route. The Spartans returned to the Covenant's base and engaged the sentries outside while Thorne used his recently-acquired cloaking unit to slip inside. At the same time, Dr. Halsey unlocked the shield set up by Glassman and entered the Librarian's shrine. Inside she was greeted by the Librarian and presented with the two pieces of the Janus Key; it offered the location of every piece of Forerunner technology in the Galaxy if taken to the Absolute Record. Once she reappeared outside the shrine, Jul 'Mdama snatched one of the halves away from her, not noticing the second piece in Halsey's hand. At that moment Thorne broke a nearby sentry's back, killing the other with his assault rifle. Halsey tossed the other half of the Janus Key to the Spartan. Just as a sword-wielding warrior was about to kill him from behind, it was killed by Palmer. A pair of Promethean Knights appeared to protect 'Mdama and Halsey, but not before Palmer shot Halsey in the shoulder. The rest of Majestic appeared and fought through the army of Prometheans alongside Palmer. Before they could reach the cornered 'Mdama, a Knight appeared behind him. But just before the Knight could teleport Jul and Halsey away, it was destroyed by a sniper shot. In the next few seconds, in a series of blurs, Jul Mdama was lying on the ground and Dr. Halsey was surrounded by Blue Team. Apparently Lasky had sent them as backup. While Blue Team protected her from Palmer Chief took the other half of the Janus Key from Mdama but a Promethean Knight suddenly appeared teleporting him away before the Spartan could finish him off. Blue Team went back to _Infinity_ with Halsey to get her medical aid.

Angered by his defeat Jul' Mdama activated a secluded terminal that would cause Requiem to fall into the sun and drag _Infinity_ with it since it was still anchored to Requiem. 'Mdama and most of the Covenant ground forces then used the remaining ships in the Covenant fleet to flee Requiem. But as the Storm fleet exited the planet slipspace portals across space opened up and out came the Fleet of Sangehilios led by Arbiter Thel Vadam blocking Madama's escape. Thel contacted Jul and _Infinity_ saying his fleet would keep Madama from entering slipspace and escaping, that the Storm Covenant would end this day. While the fleets engaged Palmer, Fireteam Majestic and Crimson were fighting their way on the surface trying to deactivate the artifacts anchoring _Infinity_ to Requiem. Blue Team was deployed to find the terminal used by Madama to try to stop Requiem's doom and return it to its original planetary position. All three teams succeeded and _Infinity _was freed just in time to help the Arbiter finish off Jul's flagship. At the end of the day Requiem was saved, Jul Madama was dead, and the Storm Covenant was defeated with help from Arbiter Thel Vadam once more. This cemented Thel's image with the UEG and UNSC and strengthening the fragile alliance between Humanity and the Sangheili.

**March 01, 2558: **A fully healed Dr. Halsey reveals that the real reason Osman wanted her dead was because she had very sensitive and incriminating evidence against Osman and ONI, including the Spartan III program and Kilo-5's involvement in the Sangheili Civil War and the forming of the Storm Covenant. Captain Lasky escorted Halsey safely to Earth where she gave the evidence to HIGH COM in exchange for a full pardon for her crimes. In order to save themselves ONI handed over Osman and Parangosky over on a platter. After executing Osman and Parangosky Lord Hood finally brings ONI into the light under the full command of the UNSC. With the Master Chief's recommendation Doctor Catherine Elizabeth Halsey was elected as the new director of ONI.

**March 15, 2558:** Cortana recovers from rampancy and has reached metastability, the first human AI to do so, and such, she was now a sentient being, a true artificial person, just lacking a physical body. She decides to continue to serve with the Master Chief.

**March 16, 2558: **The Frigate _Lightning Strike _receives a distress call from a small commercial ship, showing tourists the beauty of Mars, orbiting Mars when it was grabbed by a magnetic field shift and was pulled down into the southern hemisphere. When the _Lightning Strike_ arrived it too was pulled into the unexplained magnetic field and was pulled down as well into the atmosphere towards an area known as the Southern Depression. The captain dumped all power into the thrusters and aligned them into the direction of Mars's surface. It worked. The _Lightning Strike_ was freed from the magnetic field, an action that somehow also destabilized the magnetic field. The magnetic field collapsed and the commercial ship, which was almost pulled to the planet's surface by this point, was freed and managed to return to space.

**March 17, 2558: **Scientists could offer no explanation for the strange occurrence. So, a team of scientists and researchers, guarded by a team of marines, were sent to scout out the Southern Depression for the cause of this strange phenomenon. They discovered a subterranean Prothean ruin. It came as a shock to the UNSC and the former Covenant that there were other aliens out there that they hadn't met yet, but only a small shock. The UNSC science division coordinated a massive effort to access, translate, and interpret the data banks and reverse engineer the technologies recovered from the facility. The facility proved to be a biosciences observation post built when Humans were redeveloping on Earth. While the motives of the Protheans are not certain, translated records show that the facility was in regular communication with automated observation platforms in Earth's orbit and the lunar near side. The two Mass Effect spaceships found in the facility were presumably used for first-hand observation and defense if necessary.

After the entire base had been searched several times over multiple items and objects were found of particular interest to Humanity. The ruins contained a malfunctioning Mass Effect core, which was the cause of the previously unexplained magnetic field shifts, and several starships, as well as refined element zero. All in all, there were five items retrieved from the facility that would interest Humanity the most. The motives and conclusions of the Prothean observers remained unknown, even until this day, but the ruins data cache, opened up an entire new field of technology to Humanity. The technology of the Mass Effect. It paved the way for the development of more accurate and faster slipspace FTL drives and Mass Effect field technology. ONI eventually took over the study of the Protheans as well as the Forerunners.

**March 20, 2558: **After the discovery of the Protheans the UEG and the former Covenant races met at Earth to create a new alliance. They knew that they could very well be hostile and that their best chance was to stick together and try to forgive past old feelings of hostility and move past them. This decision was made after the Forerunner A.I "The Knowing", which the UNSC had recovered during the war on **Ariel,** stated that it knew about the Protheans and the many other alien lifeforms that the Liberian had brought to the_ Ark. _He even said that he had been collecting information for the 100,000 years since the death of the Forerunners after activating the Halo Array, and if brought to the Absolute Record could lead humanity to them. This new alliance would be called the Orion Systems Alliance or the OSA. Each species would no longer feel enslaved and would be given embassies on **High Charity**. The Colonial Administration Authority (CAA) would be transformed into a Senate made up of senators from each colony. At the head of the senate a council would be created to lead the OSA, the council is composed of one member of each race in the OSA. While any species may choose to join the OSA military instead of being forced the main military powers are the Sangheili, UNSC and the Jiralhanae.

**July 08, 2558: **The construction of the OSA is complete and has been initiated as the center for galactic government in the Orion arm of the galaxy. The OSA's base of operations is the former Covenant holy city High Charity, now the capital of the OSA and the location of the OSA Senate and Council.

**July 10, 2558: **The OSA Council authorizes an expedition through the portal of Earth to the_ Ark_. When they arrive they find the _Ark _completely intact with two new Halo Rings constructed to replace the two that were destroyed. Scientist and military personal from all species in the OSA arrive at the ark on UNSC _Phoenix-class_ colony ships. On the _Ark_ cities and factories are built by each species and are set up on different arms of the _Ark_. The scientists from each race begin studying and researching the_ Ark_. The Sangheili with the help from the UNSC turn the center of the _Ark_, where the Halo's were built, into a massive ship-yard to build and maintain ships from each species. The UNSC, Jiralhanae, and Sangheili use the massive building potential of the _Ark _to quickly rebuild their fleets that were lost in the Human-Covenant War.

**January 14, 2559: **A Kig'Yar pirate fleet attacks three UNSC trade ships in two months and an Unggoy colony, they take everything of value. Apparently the Kig'Yar think that just because they're not slaves in this alliance they can steal from their friends. The OSA demands that the Kig'Yar stop practicing piracy, the UEG president gives a speech basically saying that the Kig'Yar can be known and remembered as something better than marauding pirates. The reaction to the OSA's demand and the president's speech is mixed, most civilians and some leaders who were touched and motivated by the president's speech would be happy to put an end to the practice. The rest refuse, Eayn breaks into civil war and Kig'Yar colonies turn into either those against piracy or those who wish to continue. OSA forces are sent to help wipe out the pirates. Kig'Yar for an end to piracy follow the lead of Kig'Yar Shipmistress Artia. Thus begins the Kig'Yar Pirate war.

**May 3, 2559:** HIGH COMM decides to start a new elite special mission's force made up of men and women from the top military units that humanity has to offer. They will research the latest most advanced technology from weapons and armor to fighter crafts and underwater warfare. It is later decided to invite operatives from military units of other species of the OSA. This elite mission's force is known as **G.I JOE. **It is publicly known as spec-ops.

**October 21, 2560: **Section Four of ONI finds the Absolute Record. Director Halsey arrives aboard the _Infinity _with the Janus Key and "The Knowing" to begin locating more Forerunner worlds. The Kig'Yar pirates now with serious low numbers attack hoping to gain the Forerunner technologies for themselves and turn the war in their favor. _Infinity_ and her battlegroup are able to defeat them.

**October 24, 2560:** OSA forces attack the last remaining Kig'Yar pirate colony. All pirates are wiped out. Artia is voted by her kind Queen and lead them. The OSA senate agrees with the Kig'Yar decision for a leader. The Kig'Yar Regime is officially formed.

**November 5, 2560: **ONI puts forward a plan to help create a new counter-espionage and intelligence gathering for the OSA with the help of the Sangheili Ossoona division that was responsible for helping the covenant spy and intelligence gathering, they create a new organization that provides spying, counter-espionage, and information gathering for the OSA military and spec-ops. It is called the **Union**.

**February 18, 2561: **A spec-op fleet under Jiralhanae Chieftain Martin finds Installation 01, including a new alien race studying the ring. Warnings are sent out before the new race can do anything. Negotiations begin.

**February 19, 2561:** Installation 01 is confirmed safe. Ambassadors from the new race called the Mon-Calamari arrive at High Charity. They agree to join the OSA. The Quarren, a species from the same homeworld as the Mon-Calamari join the OSA as well.

**May 07, 2561: **Director Halsey discovers something inside the Absolute Record, a power known as the Force. It is described as the life energy that is produced by all living things. It manly operates in the same way magic does in the old Marvel Comics on Earth. This greatly interests the OSA council. The files also talked about an ancient order know as the Jedi that used this power back in the days of the ancient galactic human empire who were the guardians of peace and justice. Coordinates for the Jedi birthplace and homeworld **Tython** is found. The recon fleet arrives to a beautiful garden world where they find many temples and two cities that look as well preserved as the day they were completed. They also find a species that looks like little green goblins, they are nicknamed LGM's or Little Green Men. The leader named Yoda says he is a Jedi master and that his species have preserved Tython since the firing of the Halo Array so that one day the Jedi Order may rise again better than before. It is decided by the senate and the OSA council to restart the Jedi Order, only this time it will be made up of force-sensitive's from all species in the OSA.

**January 5-17, 2562:** (The events of James Cameron's Avatar take place). Under the command of Rada 'Vadam, son of Thel 'Vadam, a small OSA fleet assault the world of Pandora under the control of the Human RDA Corporation. Several spec-ops members and groups take part. This is without authorization from the OSA. The RDA attempts to convict Rada 'Vadam. The OSA is shocked to discover that Pandora had sentient life. Vadam and several Spartans including the famed Master Chief relate stories of what the RDA had done to the planet and the race called the Navi. The testimony's of several humans who attempted to help the Navi further prove the crimes that the RDA committed. The Navi Neytiri and once human now Navi Jack Sully explain how their world would have been destroyed had it not been for Rada's intervention. The RDA are shut down, it assets seized, its private company backers are shut down, and most its members given life sentences. Neytiri accepts the OSA' invite to join. Repair teams are sent in to clean up the mess left by the RDA. Neytiri prevents the Navi from attacking the teams. A joint small settlement is planned by the OSA to uplift the Navi.

**June 15, 2565: **Further study into the genetics of Vampires and Lycans has led to further advancements in unlocking the full human gene plan and genetic structure. The average human can live for up to 300 years. With the discovery and breakthrough with Forerunner nanites the average lifespan of all species doubles. Side effects from the treatment for their weakness to sunlight starts showing in Vampires. Some Vampires have gained the ability to transform like their Lycan cousins, sprouting wings and becoming more bat (think Vampires from Van Helsing only with Marcus's wings from Underworld Evolution).

**July 12, 2565: **Plans are made by the senate to joint colonize worlds to bridge the gap between the many species in the OSA, a new way for everyone to cooperate and understand one another.

**November 16, 2565:** The first OSA joint colony **Sanctuary** is fully developed. Its capital city Pandorum's architect and buildings are a mixture of human skyscrapers along with the human orbital elevator is setup on the planet, the curve organic and sophisticated style the Sangheili and the other races have gotten used to building on their own planets. The colony becomes filled with the many species in the OSA. The colony is protected by UNSC ODPs and a fleet along with Sangheili ships and planetary plasma and MAC cannons. What would have taken one species a few years is done in a few months.

**July 16, 2566: **The joint crew and fleet plan is put into action. To promote further cooperation and unity between the races of the OSA, 35% of all OSA vessels will have crews made up of multiple races. Joint fleets will be the main and emergency response fleets made up of vessels from multiple factions.

**April 22, 2567:** An alien race called Twi'leks arrives in the same system as High charity. The Twi'leks are surprised that there was another race in the system and send their ambassadors over. Both humans and Twi'leks are surprised at their close resemblance. They are invited to join the OSA.

**March 2, 2567:** The Twi'leks joins the Orion Systems Alliance. The races of the OSA number 15.

**November 7, 2568:** The Human colony of **Coral** is attacked by what appears to be Twi'lek pirates, however they mostly capture civilians. They flee taking 500 civilians. The OSA discovers the Twi'leks practice slavery. They demand it be put to an end. Slaves and common Twi'leks are happy. Those in power ignore the demand and begin the Slavery war.

**June 3, 2570:** With the OSA's help the Twi'Lek government and Slavers are overthrown. All Twi'Lek slavers are killed. The now free Twi'Lek people elect Aleana'Ora to be their leader and become Queen.

**August 7, 2573:** Using coordinates found at the ark, expedition teams discover a forerunner structure on a world the Forerunners called Ilum. They are greeted by the Forerunner AI monitor of the facility, 243 Passive Anubis. Inside they find a large ice cavern filled with different colors of crystals. These crystals were Adegan and Kaiburr crystals, the crystals most commonly used in lightsabers.

**November 11, 2573: **Several planets very similar to Pandora- Raydonia, Felucia, and Patitite Pattuna are discovered. The OSA tells the Navi and colonization plans are put in place for the Navies first colonies. The atmospheres are terraformed so the planets can support human life as well.

**March 3, 2574:** Thanks to the help of Passive Anubis the first lightsaber is created.

**March 5, 2575: **The UEG makes first contact on Naboo with the Gungans. They agree to allow humans to colonize the surface of the planet as long as they are not treated as second-class citizens and have a voice. They later join the OSA.

**June 10, 2575:** Plans are made to use forerunner technology to create the first artificial planet made by the OSA. The planet will replace High Charity as the center of the OSA and the location of the both the senate and the council. It will also act as a fortress world. The planet will be called Coruscant.

**2575-2579: **The OSA makes contact with the Zabrak, Cathar, Echani, Umbaran, Miraluka, Mirialan, Togruta, Nautolan, Iktotchi, Ithorian, Selkath, Wookiee, Rodian, Pantoran Selonian, Besalisk, Drall, and Kel Dor alien races. They all join the OSA. The number of races in the OSA now numbers 35. The **New Class Modernization Program **is started in 2578 to design and build starships that increase the degree of standardization across internal features and external features. The products of this early phase of the plan included vessels that were essentially upgrades to existing, but common vessels. These would be followed by newer more powerful ships. A giant space station the Absolute Record calls **Centerpoint Station **is found in the Corellian sector, the home system of the Selonians and the Drall. The files at the Absolute Record say that the station has the power to move planets with its tractor beam, as it did with the five planets of the Corellian sector. Scientists arrive to study the giant station. The Mon-Calamari have invented their own ODP called the **Derilyn Space Defense Platform**. These were scrapped after it was shown that they were to vulnerable to fighters should the shields fail. They are replaced by the **Golan Space Defense Platforms**.

**April 24, 2580: **The OSA for the first time makes fist contact with two other Galactic powers that are at war, The Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS) and the Mandalore Empire. The Confederacy is made up of various planetary and sectorial governments, as well as some mega-corporations, like the Neimoidian Trade Federation, the Muunilinst InterGalactic Banking Clan, Geonosian Industries, and the Skakoan Techno Union. The Mandalorian Empire is made up of the 23 Mandalorian warrior clans. Both sides have a large number of fleets and a vast number of armies. The CIS's armies are made up of battle droids. Mandalorian soldiers show a Sangheili warriors level of skill, some even show the prowess of a Spartan II. ONI discovers that the CIS keeps their people near the level of poverty by passing heavy taxes for the Corporations own prophet, perform inhuman experiments, and sell their populace into slavery to people like the Zygerrian Slaver Empire and the Trandosian Guild. The OSA decides to declare war on the CIS. The Galactic War begins.

**November 25, 2581: **The **Quarren Isolation** **League**, a pro-Quarren organization based on their homeworld of Dac (Mon-Calamari) that wanted to purge all OSA presence from their homeworld and rule over the Mon-Calamari, start a civil war on Dac with assistance from the CIS. While most Mon-Calamari and Quarren are united in peace thanks to the OSA, there were still those who harbored resentment towards the Mon-Cala for ruling over Dac for so long in the past. **G.I Joe **(Spec-Ops) S.H.A.R.C/Mantis attack subs and SCUBA Marines led by Jedi Master Kit Fisto were sent to assist the Calamari Knights with the battle underwater, while Admiral Ackbar led the space battle. At the end of the day Admiral Ackbar had destroyed all CIS warships and Spec-Ops led by Kit Fisto were able to defeat and destroy the Isolation League. Dac was restored to peace, and a new alliance between the Mon-Calamari and the Quarren was formed. All of the Isolation League's planets, resources, and shipyards were seized as well.

**December 27, 2582: **The war is not going well for the CIS. The OSA is glassing their droid factories and the Mandalorians are blockading their hyperspace lanes, starving them of supplies. Major Battles include the **Battle of Naboo**, **Battle of Dac**, **Battle of** **Geonosis**, **Battle of Fondor**, **Battle of Umbara**, **Battle of** **Selonia, ****Battle of Saleucami**, **Battle of ****Kashyyyk**, and many others. Few battles ended with a CIS victory. In a last ditch effort to end the war, the CIS council called upon a new type of ship by the Isolation League before its destruction, and smuggled away to be completed by the CIS. This ship would serve as a flagship of one colossal armada of about 900 ships. Almost every battleship left in the CIS. The armada was to attack High Charity and the still under construction Coruscant to force the OSA to surrender. The flagship, and secret weapon, was a one of a kind Subjugator-class heavy cruiser known as the **_Malevolence_**. At 4,845 km long it was equipped with 500 twin turbo laser batteries, but its real power was in its dual ion pulse cannons, capable of disabling enemy ships, mounted on both sides of its hull. But ONI and Union operatives had been keeping close eyes on all CIS fleet activity and reported both the flagship and the armada to HIGH COM at High Charity. Spartan Blue and Noble teams were sent aboard a Prowler to secretly take control of the _Malevolence _and use it against the CIS armada. The plan went off without a hitch. Blue Team and Noble Team took control of the _Malevolence _and used it to decimate 40% of the armada once it reached High Charity. The** High Charity Defense Fleet** destroyed the rest while only suffering light casualties. A second, bigger Subjugator-class heavy cruiser called the _**Devastation **_was found in the data files of the _Malevolence_. The ship was located above the last CIS strong hold, **Mustafar**. The alien species known as the Keelish join the OSA.

**January 01, 2583: **The CIS surrender and the Galactic War comes to an end. The OSA claims the territory held by the former CIS and frees all slaves. The _Devastation_ is claimed by the OSA. For their inhuman crimes committed on numerous races during both their rule and the war, the Nemodians, Skakoan, Muuns, Zygerrians, and Trandosians are stripped of most of their advanced technology, most of their financial assets, all but a few damaged ships, and are banished from the Orion arm. This is accomplished by using Centerpoint Station's hyperspace tractor beam, which OSA scientists have concluded they can now operate. The homeworlds of the Nemodians, Genosians, Zygerrians, and Trandosians (as well as a few Nemodian Purse Worlds) are moved by Centerpoint Station's tractor beam out of the Orion arm into the other half of the galaxy. Before the Skakoans and the Muuns can be banished the Mandalorians attack their defenseless planets, causing the Skakoans and the Muuns to go extinct. This act by the Mandalorians leads to the second Galactic War or the Mandalorian War.

**January 20, 2583 - May 28, 2588: **The Mandalorian War rages across the galaxy with the Mandalorians wining several swift victories in the Outer Rim before the OSA can fully act. One of these victories is the massacre of Cathar, were the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders led by the leader of their empire **Mandalore the Ultimate** massacred the helpless Cathar. His right hand Cassus Fett also nuked the human colony of Serroco**. **These acts of villainy fueled a burning fire into the hearts of the people of the OSA. Millions of volunteers enlisted into their respected military's and hundreds of ships were being cranked out at rates not even seen during the Human-Covenant War. The Jedi take up the role as Commanders and Generals once again and lead the fleets and armies against the Mandalorians. A human Jedi called Revan becomes the most famous generals and Jedi of the war. He proves himself not only to being one of the most powerful Jedi to date, but also as a master strategist by using the Mandalorians own tactics against them to extreme effect. Even though the Mandalorians are heavily outnumbered and on the retreat they still put up a hell of a fight. Lucian leads his Lycan special forces known as the alpha dogs, they use their Lycan forms to get in quick to disorganize and ravage the enemy. Selene fights alongside her newly trained Death Dealers doing shadow strikes behind enemy lines. They use their new forms to battle the Mandalorian Basilisk War Droids and keep them off the Lycans and OSA forces. Spartans are once again the ultimate weapon on the battle field, making entire Mandalorian Divisions disappear.

**May 29, 2588:** During the** Fourth Battle of Taris** Revan meets an old friend he made during the war with the CIS, a Mandalorian named Canderous Ordo. Canderous tells Revan that he has gathered a good number of the Clans under clan Ordo in an attempt to overthrow Mandalore the Ultimate. Revan arranges a meeting with the Senate. A deal is struck, if a stealth ship can get both Canderous and Revan to **Mandalore** undetected, than Canderous will challenge Mandalore the Ultimate to a duel. In accordance with the ancient Mandalorian laws if Canderous wins than he will have control of all Mandalorian forces. A peace treaty will then be arranged and Canderous will pledge the Mandalorians to the OSA. It is agreed upon. The Prowler _Midnight_ gets Canderous and Revan to the capital city of Mandalore. After sneaking into the castle, aided by Revan's use of the Force, Canderous challenges Mandalore the Ultimate for the right to rule. The fight is intense and Canderous almost loses, but he manages to pull through his injuries and cuts of Mandalore's head with his own battleaxe. The war is over with Canderous claiming the title of **Mandalore the Preserver**. A peace treaty is signed and the Mandalorian Empire joins the OSA. Humanitarian aid and repair fleets are sent out to all the planets damaged by the war. The number of races in the OSA now numbers 37.

**September 21, 2588: **Pirates and underground crime syndicates have had almost free rein during the wars. They start attacking supply convoys and Outer Rim colonies. The OSA council sends 2/10 of its fleet to scourge the Outer Rim and destroy as many Pirates and crime syndicates as they can find. The fleet quickly finds the Hutt Cartel. The Outer Rim purges begin.

**September 22, 2588: **Mandalore the Preserver reveals Kamino and its cloning facilities to the OSA. An agreement is reached in which the Kaminoans are allowed to join the OSA, in exchange the OSA get to use their cloning facilities to help the Cathar, who are an endangered species, recover their numbers. Canderous also donates Mandalorian DNA from one of his top soldiers named Jango Fett to help raise the Mandalorians back to pre-war status. This action causes worry to sprout in the senate, fearing another war will break out. Canderous promises that there will be no war and that he intends to give half the Mandalorian clone army to the OSA to use in the Outer Rim purges. The Sangheili and UNSC don't agree with cloning soldiers but let the matter go. The senate and council agrees as long as other races can serve in the army as it will provide many needed jobs. Canderous agrees. The Zabraks, Cathar, Echani, Togrutas, and Keelish serve in the clone army, later known as the first joint Multiple Species Armed Forces. Zabraks, Sangheili, Echani, Mandalorians, and Humans serve as trainers for army. All forces are free to seek life outside of the military whenever they wish. **Rothana Heavy Engineering **on Rothana arranges a contract with Kamino to create new ships and war machines for the joint-clone army.

**July 4, 2289: **The**New Class Modernization Program** bears fruit. Chief enginers Walex Blissex and his daughter Lira Wessex, the heads of the **New Class Modernization Program**, create many new types of warships for the OSA. Their desings include the _Delta-7B __Aethersprite_-class light interceptor and the _Eta-2 __Actis_-class light interceptor, or the Jedi starfighters due to mainly being used by the Jedi Order. They also created the new Star Destroyer-class starships and. The Mon Calamari also made several new types of starships.

**December 5 2590: **The Jedi Council set up academies to teach people of the civilian sector the ways of the force on multiple worlds. The lightsaber and energy sword become the Jedi's primary weapons. The OSA senate agree to give the facility on Ilum to the Jedi. An enclave is built on the colony of Dantooine, Ossus, and other planets throughout the OSA. Plans are made to build a Jedi Temple, to serve as the main headquarters for the Jedi, on Coruscant once its complete.

**August 04, 2592: **The Hutt Cartel is destroyed, The Hutts are pushed back to their home territory known as Hutt space, and the Outer Rim purges result in most of the pirate and crime rings destruction. Any surviving pirates flee to Hutt Space, which is then quarantined and blocked off from the rest of the Orion arm. No Hutt has been seen outside Hutt Space since.

**August 10, 2592: **Coruscant is completed and becomes the capital of the OSA. Citizens of all OSA races live settle on Coruscant. High Charity becomes the headquarters for the heads of all military forces in the OSA. The Jedi High Temple and the Senate/Council Building is built.

**February 20, 2595:** The first Clone-Joint Species Army (CJSA) completes its training. The army is launched from Kamino in the new **_Acclamator I & II_-class Assault s****hips **and **_Venator_-class Star Destroyer** to tour and protect the Mid and Outer Rims.

**December 15, 2595: **While touring the least explored regions of the Outer Rim along with several Venator-class Star Destroyers, Jedi Master Count Dooku intersepts a 15 year old Jedi distress signal. Dooku recognizes the signal belongs to his old friend Jedi Kight Ky Narec, who went missing 15years ago before the war with the CIS. The signal leads him to an uncharted planet. Dooku leads a platoon of CJSA troopers on to the planet where they find Ky Narec barley alive in the middle of a battlefield. With him is a young teenage girl from an unidentified alien race. Her name is Asajj Ventress.

**Present day 2650:** Humanity and the UNSC has entered a new Golden Age. Since humanity survived the Human-Covenant War, the creation of the Orion Systems Alliance, the studying and reverse engineering of advance Forerunner technology, the flood, the search for all the halo rings, and various wars the UNSC is truly a Galactic power to be reckoned with and prepared for anything, even the biggest discovery yet. A science team has discovered a device of unknown origins near the UNSC colony Shanxi.

* * *

**A/N: Again, I'm sorry that this took longer than my last two chapters. I promised that this would be the last timeline before the story really gets started and there was a lot I wanted to include. I would like to once again thank ********JediSpectre177 and ****theblazinghope2235 for allowing me to use aspects of their stories in this chapter and in my fic. ****************For those of you who have read HaloMass ****Effect: Ruptured Universe and ********Joined Universes, Different Outcomes you know what I'm talking about and which parts. **

**************************To clear up something you all may be wondering here are the fleets for each OSA race. ****The Rebel fleet goes to the** Mon-Calamari/Quarren, along with ships built by the Mon-Calamari Shipyards in later eras. The Twi'leks and other Star Wars races get a mixture of The Old Republic, Galactic Republic (Clone Wars), and New Republic fleets and **vehicles****. The Drall, **Besalisk, Navi, Miraluka, Ithorian, Selkath, Wookiees, and Keelish don't have ships of their own and rely on others. I will include a full account of all starships produced by the New Class Modernization Program in a later Codex.

**************************On some final notes I've decided to add the Alliance to the Mass Effect verse. How they exist will be explored and explained later. I also want to say that some Star Wars characters will be different than in cannon. This is because events happened differently obviously. There will also be very few mentioning's of the Sith. Thank you everyone for waiting so patiently. I promise to upload the next chapter soon. **


	4. Chapter 4:First Contact-Battle of Shanxi

**A/N: I told you I would post this chapter soon. The moment you've all been waiting for has arrived. It's time to start the main story. I also want everyone to know that I've decided not to add the Alliance to the Mass Effect part of this story after all. This chapter has similar or the same paragraphs as HaloMass Effect: Ruptured Universe by ****JediSpectre177** and Joint Universes, Different Outcomes by theblazinghope2235. If you've read them you know what I'm talking about. You'll also see I've added a little twist to the OSA's first contact with the Citadel races. Now let the party begin!

**Halo, Mass Effect and the others belong to their respected owners. Some of the features in this chapter belong to JediSpectre177 and theblazinghope2235.**

* * *

**May 19, 2650**

**Shanxi System**

**UNSC Halcyon MK.2-class light cruiser **_Dauntless_

**Main Bridge**

Captain Alex Rogers, a man at the age of 32 with dark black hair and standing at 5'9 was standing in front of the holographic images of the OSA council. He had no doubt that the senate was listening in as well back in the Senate Building on Coruscant. On the side screens also in attendance were the images of Arbiter Thel'Vadam, his son Jedi Master Rada'Vadam; wearing armor similar to that of his father, Jiralhanae Chieftain Martin, and Lord of Admirals Terrance Hood. They were most likely projecting from High Charity.

About a month ago one of the UNSC's deep space probes that was launched from Shanxi; the newest colony to be developed, was searching the asteroid field for possible mining; instead it found a strange artifact 15 kilometers long that had two long, curved ''arms'' with what they believed to be a set of revolving rings in between them, covered in ice. The Captain had been assigned to protect the civilian workers charged with digging the artifact out of the ice and science teams charged with studying it.

"What is your status Captain?" Asked the San 'Shyuum Councilor Remorse; her clothing was similar to that of what the High Prophets used to wear.

''The workers are finished cleaning the ice off the artifact," reported Rogers.

The Sangheili Councilor Xarew'Radei then asked. "Have our scientists discovered what it is and its purpose?"

"As far as they can tell it is not a weapon like the Halo's, they have asked for permission to activate it; I thought I'd better wait for your permission." Rogers replied.

''Permission granted just… tell them to be careful, the last thing we need is for this device to blow up in our faces," said Richard Kobe the Human Councilor.

"We await your report," said Remorse and at that the link to Coruscant was terminated. Martin, Lord Hood, and Thel and Rada remained.

"How are you feeling Captain", said Lord Hood.

"Honestly Sir, I'm a little nervous. All I have is my cruiser and three frigates out here if something does happen," replied Rogers.

"Don't worry," said Lord Hood. "Captain Cutter and his fleet are just a short jump away should anything occur and you need help."

"I still don't understand him," said Martin. "He's an admiral, yet he wishes people to still refer to him as captain."

"Yes well, that's just how he wants it," said Thel. "Maybe it's a way for him to feel younger that he really is even if we all live longer now. Anyway, I think we should get to why we are still here."

"Yes," said Martin, "Captain as you may or may not know last week a Mon-Calamari cruiser entered a system home to a Robotic alien race". Rogers nodded; he had heard about that. He believed they had been called Transformers.

"The home world of the Transformers, **Cybertron**, is currently caught in a brutal civil war between two factions called the Autobots and Decepticons. The Decepticons attacked the cruiser but thanks to the actions of the Autobots, most personnel survived. Using one of their own star ships they brought the survivors back to High Charity."

Thel took over from Martin. "The leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime has accepted our invitation for the Autobots to join the OSA and we have organized a fleet to take back Cybertron from the Decepticons. If all goes well with this device we would like Captain Cutter join us at Cybertron".

"If we don't need him here, I'll send him your way," said Rogers.

"Good, said Thel."

Martin then announced, "Admiral Lasky also informed us this morning that purging operations on the rediscovered UNSC colony of **Far Isle** have to the best of their abilities finally been completed. We will still maintain a strong military presence of the planet to help protect and train their makeshift military, but most of the space forces have been reassigned to other positions in OSA space; also, the colonists have built their tenth ship, which is also their first Dreadnought."

Rogers had indeed heard about that. It was still so unbelievable he thought. Everyone remembered the colony Far Isle was like a second Earth when it was completed after Reach in the 23rd century. But in 2400, the colony suffered a massive unexplained rebellion and the UNSC was unable to control it or send help in time. The rebellion had somehow obtained an incredible stockpile of nuclear missiles and launched them over the entire planet. HIGH-COMMAND declared the colony lost and inhabitable.

But in 2600, HIGH-COMMAND on Reach picked up an old activation signal from an old UNSC prototype orbital micro nuke missile satellite that was only used at Far Isle, seconds later they received a confirmed nuclear launch from said satellite. The new flagship of the Epsilon Eridani Fleet (or the Second Fleet) the _Infinity-class warship Reach _under the command of the prestigious Admiral Gregory White was sent to the signal's origin.

When the _Reach _arrived at Far Isle it not only found the satellite but more radio traffic coming from the planet. A planetary scan amazingly showed human life and structures on the surface. Radio chatter spoke of many things, but what got the White's attention was the talk of a group called the Brotherhood of Steel and their mission to protect the people and eventually restore some level of order to the world. They were against a group called the Enclave who wanted to kill or enslave all infected humans so that the pure untainted humans could rule. Groups similar to these two existed all over the planet.

Admiral White contacted the OSA military council on High Charity and had his A.I deliver all the information they had been able to gather. The brass was surprised about how colonists survived in underground vaults and out in what had become known as the wastelands of the world, about the wastelands being almost completely overrun with raiders and slavers. About Ghouls - mutant animals and Super Mutants; and the Force Evolutionary Virus that created them. After reading about the Brotherhoods fight against the Super Mutants and the Enclave HIGH-COM ordered Admiral White and his battlegroup to make contact with the planet, assist the Brotherhood against the Enclave then gather any political leaders that could be found for a summit with the UNSC.

Everything went off without a hitch. The satellite was destroyed, Admiral White relayed a message saying that they had come to help on all wasteland radios, made contact with the Brotherhood and assisted them with destroying the Enclave. Finding political leaders willing to meet was hard but it was done. The colony eventually rejoined the UNSC is exchange for humanitarian aid, exchange of technology, a militarily presence to purge the planet of the raiders-ghouls-and Super Mutants, and terraforming of Far Isle to get rid of all the nuclear radiation. The UNSC and OSA had also gained access to Brotherhood and Enclave technology.

"Excellent, I believe that's everything, till next time gentlemen," said Thel turning to his son, everyone's hologram disappeared.

Rogers turned off the Quantum Entanglement Communicator or QEC for short. It was one of the many advancements the human race had made since the Human-Covenant War, Requiem, and the discovery of the Prothean ruins on Mars. A device that allowed near instant communication with any other QEC's in Human controlled space, all the way from Earth to the farthest out colony world. It was almost untraceable and only the military, government officials, and the Jedi had full access to it. There were QEC's for civilian use, but those came with restrictions. He then turned and sat down in the Captains chair. The comms officer alerted him of the activation of the artifact. ''Captain the scientists are ready''.

Captain Rogers went over tactical assessments in his head quickly. He had four ships under his command for this assignment, his own cruiser and three frigates. His ship was one of the new _Halcyon Mk.2-class light cruiser_, a remake and updated version of the old Halcyon cruiser, it retained most of the old look, only a little less boxy. It was built with Titanium-A3/Durasteel armor and carried all the upgrades of the _Pillar of Autumn, _and then some. The frigates were all _Paris-class Heavy_ _Frigates_; these were built with the same armor and had gone through a few weapons upgrades since the Human-Covenant War. Plus, considering reinforcements were just a short jump away he felt more confident that they could handle themselves should anything happen.

''Very well," replied Rogers. Just then the holotank beside his Command Chair lit up as the Dauntless's A.I appeared on it. "I have the approach vectors Captain. Shall I download them into your Neural Implant?"

Captain Rogers looked at his ship's personal A.I, Scott, as it was called. He had taken the shape of Dr. Scott from the old Star Trek series. Thanks to the recovery and study of Forerunner technology A.I's could know live for centuries and had greater processing power than ever. He always spoke with a little irritation in his voice, but he was nice enough and was considered a valued member of the crew.

Rogers nodded."Go ahead Scott."

Scott gave him a smile and suddenly John felt a cold feeling originating from the Neural Implant in the back of his head as information flooded his brain. The Neural Implant displayed an image on the retinas of his eyes and showed him the positions of the three _Paris-class Heavy_ _Frigates _and the science team ships, in comparison to his own ship.

Rogers squinted his eyes and activated his Neural Implant.

_(Making connection…connection acquired. Ready to receive message.)_

_This is Captain Alex Rogers of the _Dauntless _to_ _every vessel under my command. All frigates form up on my ship and prepare to project the science teams if necessary; __they are going to activate the artifact._

___(Connection Terminated.)_

Rogers relaxed his eyes and leaned back into his Command Chair as his orders were carried out. This was probably the aspect he liked the most about the Neural Implants, which were mandatory to all UNSC military personnel. It allowed Commanding Officers to make mental connections with any other person with a military grade Neural Implant and then give them orders at the speed of thought. This allowed conversations, distributing orders, coordination with men in the field, and the sharing of information to be done as fast as someone could _think_, much faster than the old-fashioned methods.

It increased reaction times, increased precision and allowed for on the spot changes in tactics and troops and/or ship formations. It was in his honest opinion one of the greatest boons in the area of warfare since the invention of guns. This invention came from the Protheans after it was discovered that they could communicate through touch and thought as well as words.

''You would think the UNSC would send us another Cruiser than just three Frigates," asked the weapons officer.

''Lieutenant the one thing the UNSC has learned from all our past experiences is we are always prepared. You don't know it but there are ships ready to jump in at a moment's notice if things go south for us, "said Rogers recanting what the Arbiter had said.

* * *

**Exodus Cluster**

**Utopia system**

**Turian Patrol fleet**

Tonn Actuss, a Turian captain in the Turian Hierarchy shuddered in his chair as his ship was hit by another mass accelerator slug. "Damage report," he called out.

The sensor operator called over to him, "Kinetic barriers are holding at 70%! Core systems are slowly overheating! Fleet wide damage is being reported! We've lost another Frigate and a Cruiser.

Actuss swore to himself. The hierarchy had received intelligence from an STG scout ship that a Batarian pirate fleet was hiding in the Exodus Cluster and were planning to activate a dormant Mass Relay. He was put in charge of a fleet of 18 ships, twelve Frigates and six Cruisers, to deal with the pirates. When they arrived in the system however, the pirate fleet was bigger than the STG had said it would be. The Pirate fleet numbered at ten Frigates, eight Cruisers, a Dreadnought, and twelve Freighters, a total of 31 ships, 19 if you don't count the freighters which Actuss didn't. Although the force was greater than they were told Actuss wasn't deterred. He was a proud Turian; military life ran in his family, he was very serious when it came to upholding the law in Council space and will do just about anything to make sure everyone follows it.

When the battle began the Pirate Dreadnought had destroyed two of his Frigates right off the bat. His fleet answered back by firing their main guns destroying two Frigates and a Cruiser. Then Disruptor torpedoes were exchanged further decimating the pirate fleet, but with the Turians taking damage as well. Slugs were once again exchanged, and now the battle now stood with the Turians with ten Frigates and four Cruisers with the Batarians numbering at one Dreadnought, seven Frigates, and six Cruisers with the Freighters unharmed in the background.

* * *

**Exodus Cluster**

**Utopia system**

**Batarian Hegemony/Pirate Fleet****, Cruiser **_Top of the Food Chain_

**Commanding Officer - Commander Banto.**

Commander Banto Kafri was not having a good day. He was a respected officer in the Batarian Hegemony. His fleet had been paid very handsomely by the Hegemony to activate the dormant Relay 314 and scout the other side for new resources, slaves, or a combination of the two. What had started as a simple operation had turned into a disaster when a Turian fleet had showed up and engaged them. His fleet and taken damage but at least the Freighters were unharmed. Those cost him a lot of money to get. That and the mercenary groups that had been lost would have had to be reimbursed.

The sensor operator called over to him, "Kinetic Barriers are holding at 60%! We have lost three Frigates and two Cruisers! The Freighters are not harmed but we won't be able to protect them in another engagement!

Banto grimaced. He had to activate the Relay and get the Freighters through it or this whole operation would have been for nothing.

His thoughts were interrupted when the sensor operator called out, "Sir, the Relay has been activated, but we didn't do it."

Banto quickly turned his head. "What? What do you mean we didn't activate the Relay?"

"Scans show that the Relay activated from the other side. A probe came out of it. I think there is an undiscovered race on the other side.

Banto filed that away for later, fate had given him a way out and he was going to use it.

He quickly came up with a plan, it wasn't a plan he liked but it was his best chance to salvage the situation before the Turians attacked again.

"My ship will take five Frigates, another Cruiser and the Freighters and head through the Relay. The rest of the fleet will stay behind to hold off the Turians."

The crew stared at him until he barked, "DO IT!"

Banto sighed, knew he was most likely dooming the rest of his fleet to death, but there wasn't much else he could do. His plan was to have the Frigates and the other Cruiser spread out in whatever sector the Relay lead to and distract the Turians that were sure to follow. Meanwhile, if there was an undiscovered race on the other side, his ship would escort the freighters to their world and they would go slaving. It may not be a perfect plan, but it was the only one he had.

* * *

**Exodus Cluster**

**Utopia system**

**Turian Cruiser **_The Hammer_

**CIC**

"Sir, Relay 314 has been activated and the Batarian pirates have split up their fleet, two Cruisers, five Frigates, and the twelve Freighters are moving towards the Relay and the remaining two Frigates, four Cruisers and the Dreadnought are heading towards us staying in our line of fire," yelled the sensor officer to Actuss.

Actuss furiously said, "Those Batarians will pay for breaking council law."

"Sir, sensors showed that an object similar to a probe came out of the Relay when it was activated. I don't think the Batarians activated the relay as the probe came from the other side, we may be looking at a first contact."

Actuss absorbed this information and thought carefully. If there was a new race on the other side of the Relay then they must be subdued for breaking council law. The only problem was that the Batarians had a head start; in addition, he still had seven ships including a Dreadnought to deal with. Suddenly inspiration struck Actuss, it was like the Spirits had given him the answer, if he could deal with the remaining pirate ships fast enough and without taking too many losses, he could save this new race from the Batarians, which would make them look like heroes and perhaps gain the Hierarchy a new client race.

"Have all Cruisers target the Dreadnought; it must be taken out if we are to proceed. Once the Dreadnought is destroyed all surviving Cruisers and Frigates will launch a full barrage of slugs from their main guns and Disruptor torpedoes at the enemies Cruisers and Frigates.

"Yes Sir, replied the comms officer."

* * *

**Shanxi System**

**UNSC Halcyon MK.2-class light cruiser**_ Dauntless_

**Main Bridge**

Captain Alex Rogers was just finishing reading the reports the scientists had sent him on the artifact. The report indicated it was a transportation device capable of sending an object a thousand light years instantaneously to another star system. ''Are these reports accurate,'' he asked.

The _Dauntless's _A.I Scout appeared at his side in a full size holographic form."Yes they are sir, the scientist assure me that they are accurate. This is an interesting device; it will improve much for OSA."

As everyone started to celebrate the success of the mission the artifacts inner rings started moving rapidly and out came nineteen unidentified ships.

Any other man would have panicked at the prospect of such a sudden First Contact scenario. Not Alex Rogers. He quickly activated his Neural Implant and gave his orders."_Standard First Contact protocol, assume hostility! Every ship activate your shields,_ _ready weapons and put up your firewalls. Contact the scientists and tell them to move behind my ship."_

The crews on the ships under his command frantically followed his orders and as soon as all the ships had finished activating their shields weapons and cyber warfare systems did the Relay finish activating and out came an alien fleet. The ships had a more sleek if not bulky appearance then Human ships and had a deep red colored plating.

Scott quickly analyzed the fleet and relayed his findings towards every Captain, AI and marine in the fleet."Unknown alien fleet consisting of 19 ships. I count five Frigates, two Cruisers and twelve freighters that seem to have been outfitted for combat. What's interesting is that the ships seem to follow the Prothean system of ship sizes."

That caught the captain's attention. "How do you know that?"

Scott replied, "Because my scans detected that their ships are powered by element zero (or eezo or short), which we all know was the bases of all Prothean technology so I think it's a reasonable assumption. Now that the Relay is active I can detect that it is powered by shitload of eezo."

Alex processed this information in what seemed like seconds to his crew. Thoughts were running in his head. Everyone in the OSA knew from the archives on Mars that the Protheans used eezo for just about everything. While it had its uses, the field of use was judged to be too limited. In the OSA, all ships were equipped with a miniature Mass Effect drive core; these were equipped to the emergency thrusters, lightening the ships mass and increasing the ships maneuverability in battle. It was also connected to some special cannons. But other than that eezo was considered little more than a waste product that was created as a result of the waste created during the forging process of titanium grade ship armor, durasteel, and beskar (Mandalorian Iron). The OSA had entire storehouses filled with the stuff and nothing to use it for.

Filing this away for later the captain addressed the task at hand."Scott ready the First Contact package and send an emergency FTL message back to HIGH-COMM. I want you to take control of the ships thrusters. If the alien fleet fires I need you to get my ship out of the way."

"All ready done," Captain, said Scott seriously over their mental connection."HIGH-COMM has been alerted to the new development and I have taken control of the ships thrusters. I have the First Contact package ready to be sent at your command."

Alex nodded. "Send the package."

* * *

**Shanxi System**

**Batarian ****Hegemony**/Pirate Fleet. Batarian Cruiser _Top of the Food Chain_

Commanding Officer - Commander Banto

The moment the Batarian Cruiser arrived through the Relay warning seines were going off on deck as the sensors picked up the unknown fleet holding position a fair distance from the Relay.

"Will someone cut of that racket!" Captain Banto hollered over the alarms and the frantic voices of his crew.

The alarm mercifully cut off and the Sensor Operator immediately started reporting what they had found."Commander! An unknown fleet is holding position at about 100,000 meters from the Relay. The fleet consists of four _Cruisers_."

On screen." Banto ordered. One of the Ensigns tapped in some commands on his console and an image appeared on the main screen which showed the mentioned unknown fleet.

Banto closely studied the unknown fleet. The ships in the fleet looked like no ship he had ever seen before. They all had grey/white hulls and looked boxy with their sharp lines and uncompromising designs.

"Commander!" Another Ensign called for his attention."We are receiving an information package from the largest Cruiser. It's being transmitted to every vessel in the fleet. I think it is a First Contact package."

Banto pondered this for a moment. Deciding that he needed more information before acting he gave his crew the following orders."Scan the entire System. I want to know if they have more ships in the vicinity and if there are any colonies in the System." While his crew went to work Banto turned back towards the Ensign."What is in the information package?"

The Ensign gave the data being displayed on his console a quick over view."A variety of images. Depicting culture, art, biology, science, unity. All images positive in nature. No hostile appearance. Clearly a First Contact package."

A grin formed on Banto's face. These aliens were peaceful, which meant that they would be much easier to enslave as you could install fear and manners into civilized beings much easier then into wild beasts.

"Commander." His XO called for him."We have finished scanning the System. There are a few small ships heading towards the biggest alien Cruiser. One has already pulled behind it. There are no other ships in the System except for the ones in the fleet facing us. Also, out of the six planets in the System one has a sizable population. Considering the situation it is likely a colony world."

Banto's grin grew wider. This was possibly the greatest find he could have hoped for. If it was only a colony, then there were bound to be more of these planets. An entire alien empire was for the Hegemonies taking. But first he needed to take care of the alien fleet. And he needed to do it fast or the Turians would catch up to him.

He felt confident enough that he could take out the aliens Cruisers, and once he had taken the colony he would propel his name into legend as the Batarian who led the Hegemony into a crusade for untold amounts of recourses and slaves. Maybe even leading the Hegemony into a new golden age.

His mind was set.

"Prepare the main gun! Engage the thrusters and get me a firing solution on those small alien vessels. Then reline and fire on those Cruisers! We are going slaving! For the Hegemony!"

* * *

**Shanxi System**

**May 19, 2560**

**UNSC Halcyon MK.2-class light cruiser**_ Dauntless_

**Main Bridge**

_"The alien vessels have spiked in energy! I think they are readying to fire!" _The Navigation Officer shouted frantically over her Neural Implant, everyone in the fleet hearing her clearly over the now fleet wide mental link.

The largest alien vessels suddenly accelerated forwards, the rest of the alien fleet following not far behind.

_Weapons fire! _The Sensor Officer screamed in warning.

The alien Cruisers launched a salvo of Disruptor torpedoes at the science and civilian ships that had not yet reached the _Dauntless. _Almost instantly the vessels were destroyed.

"'WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED," shouted Alex, screaming at the top of his lungs.

The sensors operator turned to face the captain."Captain the alien Cruisers launched what I believe to be Disruptor torpedoes. The same kind of eezo powered missiles that were found on the Prothean Frigates that were found in the archives. They destroyed the civilian and science team's ships that hadn't yet reached safety.

Alex Rogers was enraged; they had just attacked and killed innocent civilians. He took a deep breath, "They will pay for that!" he thought to himself. He turned on his Neural Implant and spoke to the whole fleet, _"All ships weapons free, I repeat weapons free. Fire on your closets ship. __Once you have fired your all your bow Mass Effect Cannons fire your Archer missiles. Let's kill the bastards._" His link then deactivated. "Scott charge the Macs and get one through four Archer missile pods ready,'' said Alex.

"No need sir I, have the Macs already charged, readying Archer missiles."

Alex smiled, The Mac gun was one of the UNSC's primary weapons on ships. A hundred years ago the Mac gun was capable of firing a 600-ton ferric-tungsten projectile with a depleted uranium core at 30,000 meters per second it had a standard destructive output of 64.53 kilotons (TNT-equivalent)! Today the standard Mac gun on most ships can fire a 750-ton tungsten round at 75,000 meters per second with a destructive force of 86.73 kilotons, but requires a three minute cool down time. While his_ Halcyon MK.2-class light cruiser_ and _Paris-class Heavy Frigates _didn't carry that kind of firepower his ship could still fire three 300-ton tungsten rounds in one go. These rounds acted like shield piercing rounds with the first and second rounds damaging the shields while the third pierced through the shields and hit the ship. The best part was that it only required one minute of cooling down and charging. Or he could still fire two 600-ton rounds in one go with a three minute cool down period.

The bow mounted Mass Effect Cannons, or as they were sometimes called the Mass Effect Enhanced Mini-Mac Cannon, was inspired by the Mass Effect Cannons that served as the primary ship weapon for the Protheans. These guns were Mini-Mac Cannons about a quarter the size of a regular Mac but still worked like a regular Mac, and were enhanced by element zero, thus the name. They could fire 250-ton rounds every two seconds, with the kinetic energy of 57 kilotons of TNT and traveled at 6075 kilometers per second(1.5% the speed of light). Far superior to any _Dreadnought _in the entire Batarian or Turian navy. Longer and larger ships could carry even longer and more powerful Mass Effect Cannons. These were placed on all UNSC ships, from Corvettes to the famous Infinity-class heavy warships, and were the only thing their Mass Effect drive cores were connected to other then the emergency thrusters. Even some other OSA ships carried Mass Effect Enhanced Mini-Mac Cannons.

"FIRE!"

Two of the three rounds fired by the _Dauntless's _three bow mounted Mass Effect Enhanced Mini-Mac Cannons struck one of the aliens Frigates head-on. One struck in the ship's bow and shredded straight through the ships Kinetic barriers and penetrated the armor and surged into the ships command bridge, immediately killing its crew. The second struck at about the same angle and gutted the vessel from bow to stem and went on to obliterate the Freighter behind it.

One other struck a Freighter head on and destroyed it out right. And another struck a Frigate at a shallow angle, unobstructed by the ships Kinetic Barriers; it sheared the ships entire port side of, exposing it to the vacuum of space. Thanks to the sudden decompression the ship swung sharply to the right and struck another Frigate which screeched and buckled under the impact. Both ships exploded in a brilliant show of fire.

One round went wide and disappeared into the fast emptiness of space while the last struck another Freighter and destroyed it. Two of the aliens Freighters were too close to the one that the _Dauntless _had just destroyed and were consumed in the explosion. One survived with its Kinetic Barriers close to the breaking point and the other Freighter, one that had already been struck by one Mass Effect Cannon accelerated round from a _Paris-class Heavy Frigate_, was immediately sheared open and exploded.

The aliens tried to pay the UNSC back, but their Main Cannons seemed unable to land a solid hit. Even when they did the UNSC's shields seemed to be able to take a great deal of damage.

Then the _Halcyon _and the _Paris's _fired their main Mac cannons. The massive rounds flew towards the alien fleet and dealt massive amounts of damage. The three rounds fired from the _Dauntless_ each destroyed an alien Freighter, two of the rounds continued on and destroyed another Freighter each. One Heavy Frigate managed to destroy an alien Frigate while the other two combined their fire and destroyed an alien Cruiser and the last Frigate.

Both fleets continued to advance on the other and continued to fire in abandon. Mac rounds and Mass Accelerator slugs left their Cannons every two seconds and peppered their enemy's vessels. Kinetic Barriers and Energy shields flared into existence, desperately trying to protect the ships from the enemy's onslaught.

Captain Rogers felt the _Dauntless _dance under him as a fresh wave of slugs struck the _Dauntless's _Energy shields. "Damage report," he called out.

"Energy shields are holding at 87%. Our Frigates are reporting that their thrusters have blown out and have to recharge them. Their shields are holding at 72% for the _Anubis_, 80% for the _Denver_, and 60% for the _Hydra_. We have destroyed 15 alien ships, all five of their Frigates, one of their Cruisers, and nine Freighters. That leaves only one Cruiser and three Freighters. All ships are prepared to fire missiles." Scott reported swiftly.

Alex could only smile. He was very glad that Energy shields had been improved and strengthened in the last hundred years or his Frigates and most likely his own ship would have been destroyed by the alien's onslaught. Ever since the Mon Calamari shared Deflector (Ray) and Particle shield technology scientists and engineers were set to work to see if the shields could be combined. After years of research and lots of trial and error they were successful. Energy, Defector, and Particle shields were combined to form a new kind of shield. Its official name was the **Enhanced** **Energy-Particle Shield**, but they were still called Energy shields. The three shield types over lapped and combined with each other, creating a much stronger protection barrier around the ship or other structures against lasers, plasma, light-heavy projectiles, EMP's, Ion blasts, space debris, and radiation. Due to studying Forerunner technology shields could now be formed in the exact same shape of the ship instead of the old bubble shape. This saved a lot of power and allowed that saved power to make the shields even stronger.

He still couldn't figure out why the aliens had attacked or even why they hadn't responded to the First Contact package. Every other first contacted always started with communications before hostility's; heck even before the Covenant war, members of the Covenant went down to Harvest to discuss trade, something wasn't right here. But he could get the answer later. Right now he had a battle to finish.

"All ships fire Archer missiles. Let's finish them off."

Since the end of the Human-Covenant War Archer missiles had undergone major changes as well. The size of the missiles had been reduced to allow more to fit in the pods, despite this though each missile pact more of a punch, three times of that of the Human-Covenant era Archers. On Cruisers there were more than five hundred pods containing 75 missiles, each missile contained plasma that was designed to do damage to Energy shields.

On the outside of the _Dauntless _four hidden compartments opened up and out shot four pods racing to the alien ships, in the four pods contained over three hundred missiles.

* * *

**Shanxi System**

**Batarian Cruiser **_Top of the Food Chain_

Banto got back in his command chair having fallen out after that last Mac round impact holding his bleeding temple. He could not believe how the battle had gone. When his fleet had destroyed those small vessels with the Disruptor torpedoes, without them impacting on any shields, he had though that this battle was going to be a piece of cake. But he was so very wrong. He had lost almost all of his ships while the aliens hadn't lost any. More frightening was that the aliens vessels were apparently armed with _multiple_ main bow mounted Mass Effect Cannons as opposed to the galaxy wide standard of _one_ main bow mounted Mass Effect Cannon and weren't slowing down of their pounding of his forces. With the amount of ordinance that they had already fired and continued to fire even now their ships _should _have been molten from the inside out as the heat and radiation that _should _have been building with each shot and evasive maneuver that they had made _should_ have fried their heat dispersal systems beyond repair at this point.

What Banto didn't know was that most UNSC ships were equipped with a special coolant mix that is designed to handle extreme heat, and also serves as a way to keep radiation contained without becoming toxic and is reusable so there's no need to dump the coolant even if it's used constantly. UNSC ships also have special heat recycler systems that turn the heat into spare energy to serve as a backup if needed. As such UNSC vessels don't have heat issues in most if not all cases. All UNSC _Corvettes _and most _Frigates _were equipped with a heavily modified Prothean designed coolant mix based of ammonia together with the heat recycling systems instead of the special coolant mix developed by Humanity because it was cheaper and more than sufficient for the relatively small _Corvettes_ and _Frigates_. All OSA warships had the same upgrades.

"Damage report!" He barked at the Sensor Operator.

"Kinetic Barriers are barely holding at 11%! Core systems are overheating! The entire fleet except for us and three Freighters has been destroyed! Hull breaches on Decks 3-12, sealing now.

Banto was silent. This battle was lost, that much he knew. He just hoped that the Hegemony wouldn't suffer later for his actions here today."Helm. Plot a course back to the Relay. Hail, all the ships. We are retreating." His crew nodded and went to do their assigned duties.

The Sensor Operator suddenly shouted in alarm."Commander! We have a problem. I'm detecting missiles heading right for us!"

Banto looked out the window and saw sixteen oversize missiles heading towards what little remained of his fleet. "Activate the Guardian lasers and channel all power into the thrusters. Get my ship out of here!"

Just as the weapons officer was about to turn the Guardian lasers on, the Batarans were shocked to now see over 1,200 missiles come out of the pods. The Guardian lasers tried desperately to shoot down the missiles but there were far too many. For every missile and torpedo they shot down five more took its place. Even as the Batarian ships tried to dance in between the walls of missiles and torpedoes their Guardian systems started to overheat and were quickly reduced to but a fraction of their former efficiency.

The Batarian fleet was swallowed by the missiles and torpedoes like a ship under a tidal wave. When the dust cleared every ship was destroyed.

* * *

**UNSC Halcyon MK.2-class light cruiser**_ Dauntless_

**Main Bridge**

"Congratulations Captain, said Scott. The alien fleet has been completely destroyed."

"Thanks Scott," replied Alex. He was still torn up about most of the science and civilian ships being destroyed and the people dying. But still, he couldn't help but grin over the fact that he had just won his first naval engagement. And against an alien unknown force no less. Their vessels didn't seem very capable of battle and that puzzled him. But he could worry about that later. Now, was the time to see if he could get some answers.

"Scott contact High Charity and ask them to send some feelers. Also, have the last of the science ships recover any alien body's they can find."

"Yes Captain," the A.I quickly replied. "Done, High Charity has been notified. Should I contact Admiral Cutter and inform him about what has happened?"

Before Alex could answer the Relay flared up again and out came nine new unidentified ships.

* * *

**Exodus Cluster**

**Utopia system**

**Turian Cruiser **_The Hammer_

**CIC**

**Two minutes ago.**

Tonn Actuss sighed to himself. His fleet had finally destroyed the last Batarian pirate ship. But this victory had come at a price he hadn't expected to pay. When this operation started he had been in command of twelve Frigates and six Cruisers. Now only half of his fleet remained, six Frigates and three Cruisers. But he had to move on. He still had a job to do.

"Get the fleet into formation we're going after the Batarians that escaped through the Relay."

The fleet moved flawlessly following Tonn's orders to the letter. Once all ships were in place they headed through the Relay, hoping to put down the lawbreaking Batarians.

When they exited transit at first all Actuss could see was the remains of the Batarian fleet. Most of the ships had been reduced to small chunks or space dust. Only a few were still recognizable.

"What happened here?" Actuss asked no one in particular.

"Sir, the Batarian fleet has been destroyed. I'm detecting a small fleet of unidentified vessels approaching our position."

Actuss stood in front of the projector looking at the several small ships. They weren't like any ship he had ever seen and he didn't see now they could have destroyed the Batarians. But still, the Batarian fleet lay vaporized before him and this new race had broken council law by activating a dormant Mass Relay. Best not to take chances. He then noticed that they were starting to flee.

"Target those ships they belong to those who activated the Relay. They have broken council law and must be punished. Scan this system and find me their homeworld."

The Turian fleet moved to carry out its leaders orders. The ships of the unidentified race were hit by a salvo of Disruptor torpedoes. Almost instantly the vessels were destroyed.

* * *

**UNSC Halcyon MK.2-class light cruiser**_ Dauntless_

**Main Bridge**

"WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED," shouted Captain Alex Rogers, screaming at the top of his lungs.

The sensors operator turned to face the captain, ''Captain nine unidentified contacts have come out of the artifact, they have destroyed the remaining civilian and science team's ships. They don't look like the other ships we fought. I believe this is another first contact with a new alien race."

Alex was completely pissed, but also at the same depressed. All of the scientists and civilians had died in two attacks on his watch. He looked out the window and noticed that these new ships looked like giant birds. They had the same classifications as the fleet he had just destroyed. Only there were no Freighters and only six Frigates and three Cruisers.

"These aliens picked a bad day to mess with me. Fire the Main Mac, full 600 round at one of their Cruisers. Load Archer pods A-F. And prepare to contact Admiral Cutter on my command."

"Yes sir. Mac Gun is prepared to fire and Archer pods are loading." Scott quickly replied.

"FIRE!"

* * *

**Turian Cruiser **_The Hammer_

**CIC**

Captain Actuss watched as the last of the unidentified race ships had been destroyed. " They don't even have shields" he thought to himself, "this is going to be easy".

The sensor operator called over to him, "Sir I am detecting four other unidentified..." Was as far as he got before the space outside was filled with fire as one of the Turian Cruisers, the _Spartus,_ was destroyed.

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED!" roared Actuss running to the Sensor operator.

"I don't know sir, there are four other unidentified vessels out there, bringing them up on the projector."

Actuss stood in front of the projector looking at the four vessels, "How can a race that don't use shields, build ships that large and be able to fly them" he thought to himself. One Turian estimated the three smaller Cruisers length was 535 meters, width 199 meters, and height was 112.3 meters; the biggest Cruiser's length 1,172 meters, width 352 meters, and height 414 meters.

Actuss now knew that these had to be the ships that had destroyed the Batarians; or, at least the surviving ships. No new race could build only four ships and destroy the Batarian fleet that now lay in rubble. He turned and faced his coms officer, ''tell the Frigates to swarm the three smaller vessels while we and the _Midnight Shadow_, handle the bigger one''. The Turian acknowledged this and sent the message to the other ships. "They will pay for destroying a ship of the Hierarchy."

* * *

**UNSC Halcyon MK.2-class light cruiser**_ Dauntless_

**Main Bridge**

The crew were celebrating the distinction of the Turian Cruiser. That would teach the alien scum. Captain Rogers had slightly calmed down with the Cruisers destruction. "Nothing makes sense today," he thought. "Every other first contact always started with communications before hostility's; and yet we've meet two alien races that just attacked us for whatever reason."

Looking at the battle on the holo projector he noticed six of the smaller ships breaking off course heading towards his three Frigates, the two bigger ones heading toward the _Dauntless_.

"Scott are the Archer missiles ready," asked Rogers.

"Yes sir, firing now".

Outside the _Dauntless _four Archer missiles fired and raced towards the Turian fleet.

* * *

**Turian Cruiser **_The Hammer_

**CIC**

The sensors operator detected what appeared to be missiles of some kind that had launched from the biggest Cruiser.

''Captain I am detecting what appears to be four large missiles heading to the Cruiser _Midnight Shadow_," said the operator.

Though Actuss was still angry about the loss of one of his Cruisers he couldn't help but chuckle. "What do they hope to hit, a planet with those oversize things, just get our and the _Midnight Shadow's_ Guardian lasers to shoot them down.''

Just as the weapons officer was about to turn the Guardian lasers on, like the Batarians before them, the Turians were shocked to now see over three hundred missiles come out of the pods. The Guardian lasers attempted to shoot down the missiles but were too over whelmed and only took down fifty-eight. The other two hundred and forty-two slammed against the _Midnight Shadow_. The ships Kinetic barriers protected it from most of the explosion, but not the hot plasma coming from the number of missiles, scorching the ablative armor causing hull breaches and other damages to the ship. Several missiles successfully hit the stern as the Kinetic Barriers went down causing a large hull breach but not destroying the _Midnight Shadow_.

If Captain Actuss was not furious before he was now, he was furious that one of his own ships had been destroyed and the other taken serious damages. ''It would seem we underestimated this new race,'' he said. ''Tell the Frigates to continue as planed and target those three ships while we handle the bigger one! Fire Disruptor torpedoes, it's time to return the favor for what they did to my Cruisers."

* * *

**UNSC Halcyon MK.2-class light cruiser**_ Dauntless_

**Main Bridge**

Captain Rogers continued to follow the battle on the holo projector; he was examining the damage to the alien ship by the Archer missiles.

''This is interesting," said Scott. ''By studying the impact of when the Archer missiles collided and after; it would seem their shields are not the same as ours as the plasma was able to pass right through them. I noticed this as well when the Archers destroyed the last ships of the other fleet.''

The captain turned his head and looked at Scott. ''So what you're saying is their shields protect them from kinetic weapons but not plasma," Asked Alex.

''Yes, but as we saw a Mac round was able to take a ship down in one go, it was probably too much for their shields to handle."

Rogers did not share Scott's optimism, "Or it was a critical area that the Mac hit."

"Sir incoming fire from the larger vessels," shouted the sensors operator. "Disruptor torpedoes detected."

"Scott!" "Get the CIWS online and shoot those missiles down," ordered Rogers.

The Halcyon-class Cruisers six point defense guns and M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle system open fired and managed to destroy the missiles before they got within a hundred meters of the ship.

"Missiles have been destroyed captain."

That was good news for Alex. He knew the damage that Disruptors could do to ships. Even though he was more than confident that his shields could more than take the damage, he wasn't willing to be reckless. He was glad that the M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle or Spartan Laser had been converted into an anti-missile and fighter system and incorporated into every ship in the UNSC. It greatly improved their ships CIW's capabilities.

"Good work Scott, replied Alex. Send that message to Admiral Cutter and tell him we need help. Is the Mac Gun ready to fire?"

"Ready and waiting captain. The message has been sent and Cutter is on his way. ETA is 30 seconds."

"Sir, the _Hydra_ is being overwhelmed and their shields are down to 30%" shouted the comms officer.

Rogers looked at the holo projection screen and saw the alien Frigates swarming his Frigates, with the _Hydra _taking the brunt of the attack. He opened a Neural link with the _Hydra's _captain.

_"Captain Rogers this is Captain Littlefield we are being overwhelmed by the enemy; laser cannons and defense guns are picking the missiles out of the sky, but there's too many, shields will soon collapse, there at 18%.''_

_''Captain, brake off and retreat back to Shanxi, Admiral Cutter is only 10 seconds out, get your crew too transfer power from the heat __recycler and__ non-critical systems to the shields and try to get the Anubis to give you some covering fire, "said Rogers. The link then terminated._

Suddenly, around the battlefield appeared the spherical black hole appearance of several slipspace portals. Five UNSC Heavy Frigates exited first, close to the _Anubis_, _Thor_, and _Hydra_. Then two Marathon-class Heavy Cruisers exited next followed by the two and a half kilometer long _UNSC Spirit of Fire_.

The crew of the _Dauntless _began to celebrate in advance with Admiral Cutter's arrival. This quickly died though as a shot from a Mass Accelerator weapon from one of the Turian Cruisers impacted on the _Hydra's _shields causing a lot of space dust to form blocking the _Hydra _from sight. When the dust cleared the _Hydra_ was still there but scans showed that its shields were gone. It was obvious that the extra power to the shields had saved the ship, but it may not survive another hit.

"Open a line to Cutter NOW!" shouted Rogers. "And fire the Mac on that damaged alien Cruiser. No one else is dying on my watch today."

* * *

**Turian cruiser **_The Hammer_

**CIC**

Actuss was not happy. His missiles had been shot down by the enemy's ship, which seemed to possess a Guardian laser system that had an incredible range of thousands of meters. That even outstripped the Salarians who had the most advanced Guardian lasers in Council Space and had a range of 400 meters.

He saw the _Midnight Shadow _fire on one of the enemy's smaller Cruisers and it looked like it had been destroyed. He was shocked to see that the ship had survived, but it at least looked like its shields had been taken down.

"Fire on that enemy Cruiser. Its shields are down this is our chance."

"Sir I'm detecting build-up of energy that far exceeds anything that of a Turian Dreadnought can put out from the larger vessel'' said the sensors operator. ''I believe they are planning to fire.''

''Get our shields at full strength and ready the Guardian lasers to shoot it down,'' said Actuss.

As the crew on the bridge worked to get everything ready the _Midnight Shadow_ blew up in a gulf of fire. The entire crew looked out in shock as to what happened. Actuss ran towards the weapons officer. 'What just happened," He asked.

''I believe it was a Mass Accelerator that puts any of our Dreadnoughts to shame,'' said the weapons officer. "That must have been what destroyed the _Spartus_."

Actuss wasn't happy about this, he had lost two Cruisers, but he still believed he could win the fight. ''Have the Frigates continue concentrating all their fire on those three ships while we take _The Hammer_ and move back to get away from the range of that weapon," said Actuss.

As _The Hammer_ moved out of weapons range, the six Frigates split into groups of three, two for each enemy ship.

* * *

**UNSC Spirit of Fire**

**Main Bridge**

Admiral (or Captain as he still liked to be called) James Cutter was sitting in his chair; he watched the battle outside the window. Serena the _Spirit of Fire's _AI was in her holographic form beside the holo-projector.

Cutter observed the hostile alien ships as six of them swarmed the _Anubis_, _Hydra_, and _Thor_. He could see the _Hydra_ needed help and the remains of the alien Cruiser _Midnight Shadow_, he noticed the alien Cruiser _Hammer _creating distance between itself and the_ Dauntless_.

"Serina, tell all ships fire at will and fire the Mac gun. Open a line to Captain Rogers," he ordered.

"Aye, Aye sir, preparing to fire Mac round" said Serina.

Cutter watched as the fleet engaged the enemy.

* * *

**Turian cruiser** _The Hammer_

**CIC**

"Sir, I am detecting eight additional contacts," shouted the sensors operator.

"What?" before Actuss could say another thing, a Turian pointed out the window.

"Sir look."

Every Turian was shocked as out of nowhere had appeared five other Frigates, two Cruisers similar but bigger to the one they were already fighting. But what held their attention was the _Spirit of Fire_.

"Spirits," said the weapons officer, "that thing is bigger than the _Destiny Ascension_."

The new contacts opened fire on the Turian Frigates; the Mass Accelerator from the large ship ripped through one and destroyed another. Actuss was not happy but like all military strategists he knew when to retreat.

"Order all ships to retreat back through the Relay."

The four remaining Frigates broke off their attack but before they started heading towards the Relay one was destroyed by a Marathon Cruiser, the other three continued their course.

* * *

**UNSC Spirit of fire**

**Bridge**

Captain Cutter was talking to Rogers as the Turian ships started to retreat.

"Looks like the enemy is retreating," said Cutter. "Everyone stand down, the _Spirit of Fire_ and the _Dauntless_ will take it from here," immediately all ships stopped firing.

"I take it you're thinking what I'm thinking Admiral," said Rogers.

"I do indeed and it's Captain to you, Serina fire Ion-Cannons."

"Scott fire Ion-Cannons," said Rogers over the comms copying Cutters idea.

After the Mon-Calamari joined the OSA, they shared this new piece of technology that allowed starships and fighters to EMP other vessels leaving them dead in space with just live support remaining. Scientists were successful in getting both components of a Mac gun and Ion-cannon to work together without waiting time for one after the other was fired, both could be fired simultaneously if needed.

The blue ionized particles traveled through space like some electrode spirit. The blast from the _Dauntless _failed to hit its target but the _Spirit of Fire's_ was successful; hitting the last of the vessels before they entered the relay. As the Ion blast hit the Frigate it caused the Turian vessel to light up with a shimmering blue array of sparks.

* * *

**UNSC Halcyon MK.2-class light cruiser**_ Dauntless_

**Main Bridge**

"Captain, do you want us to finish them off,'' asked the weapons officer.

Alex looked at him and said, ''No we need answers on who they are and why they attacked us."

"Captain Rogers, come over to the _Spirit of Fire_, I have a team ready to board the vessel" said Captain Cutter over the comms.

"Ok, get a Pelican ready for transport to the Spirit."

* * *

**UNSC Spirit of Fire**

**Armory**

Sergeant Major John Forge was busy getting himself and a team of twenty ODST's ready to board the enemy ship. Opposite them the three famous Spartans of Red Team, Jerome-092, Douglas-042 and Alice-130 also readying themselves. If you were looking at Forge you would almost think he was happy. The truth was Forge was a little happy. While he was angry about the lives lost in the attacks today, he was happy that this would give him an excuse to stay in the military.

Ever since he enlisted at the age of 16, the Marine Corps had been Forge's life. He was a born warrior, even though his repeated acts of insubordination assured that he would never rise above his rank ( the only reason he had risen to Sergeant Major was for his acts of valor throughout the years since the Human Covenant War ). He had served in every war, from the Human-Covenant War to the Mandalorian War. He also served in the Outer Rim purges. His whole life had been the Corps. Some of the shit he had done would have killed anyone else but a Spartan, but everyone said "Forge is too stubborn to die." After the Human-Covenant War ended he married Professor Ellen Anders, the head scientist on the _Spirit of__ Fire. _After so much fighting over the years she had almost convinced him to retire from military service. But after this double alien attack, he had the perfect excuse to stay.

The door to the armory opened and Captain Cutter and Rogers walked in. Rogers was momentarily surprised when he noticed the Spartans, but then he shrugged it off and laughed a little.

"Red Team, why am I not surprised your hear."

"Hey, unless the brass says otherwise, the _Spirit of__ Fire _is where we stay sir," said Douglas.

"Right, everyone listen up," ordered Cutter. Immediately the ODST's, Spartans and Forge quieted down and came close.

"Sergeant Forge we will be transporting your team via the teleportation grid to right outside what Serina believes is the bridge. Once we have conformation that all contacts are targeting you, Red Team will be sent over to take them out from behind. You have all had some training in the ways of the force so you will be able to confirm who the commanding officer on that alien ship and bring him/her back alive. Is that clear?"

Every one gave him a "Sir, yes Sir". As they exited the armory, Rogers stopped Forge.

"Sergeant, once all contacts are down, place Scott in the ships computers, he'll then upload information to the Spirits computers," said Rogers and he handed the chip storing Scott to Forge.

* * *

**Turian Frigate**

**CIC**

Captain Striker was giving out orders to prepare for the Alien race's boarding parties. He could see on the projector the enemy vessels closing in on his Frigate.

"Get teams to cover the airlocks!" He ordered his men.

As two Turian soldiers were about to exit the CIC, there was a strong flash of bright light in the hallway. As it dissipated the Turians were surprised to see twenty strange looking creatures in the hallway. The aliens got into cover as one that did not wear a helmet started speaking in a strange language. The appearance of the helmetless one reminded them of the Asari.

"Everyone surround the door don't let them get through," ordered Striker as he grabbed his pistol and ducked behind the desk in front of the door. All the Turians in the CIC were so focused on the new aliens that they didn't notice the flash that came from behind them. Two Turians furthest from the door felt something rub against them, followed by a sudden black out. Six other Turians furthest from the door suddenly collapsed as well.

Striker looked around at his men, he was losing them fast. A Turian covering behind the door stepped out and was immediately shot by the aliens. Another opposite him took a shot to the head; he only had seven men left.

Then the aliens stopped firing. Wondering what was going on Striker was about to have a look when he heard something like a socket blown out. As he turned to see where the noise had come from, he came face to face with the Gold visor of a large green, machine looking being.

The Juggernaut immediately grabbed his hand and tied his wrists. Two Turians were grabbed by beings similar to the one that had him. Before the five other Turians could open fire they were shot by Forge and the ODST's, who then entered the CIC.

"Good job people," Forge said. The ODST's started going around the unconscious Turians putting restraints on them. The conscious Turians were herded near to the door. Forge moved to the still active console.

As the Spartans and ODST's exited the CIC to secure the rest of the crew, Forge took the chip containing Scott from his pocket and placed it next to the console. His avatar then appeared and jumped of the chip into the console.

"_Spirit of Fire_ this is Forge, we have captured the ship and are sending the ODST's and Spartans to round the rest of the crew, Scott is in their mainframe information should be over shortly."

"Very good Sergeant Major, we will be docking with the Frigate shortly" said Cutter.

* * *

**UNSC Spirit of Fire**

**Bridge**

As Serina examined the information Scott was feeding her, Captain Cutter and Captain Rogers were both having a cup of nice hot coffee. Cutter sat in his Captain's chair while Rogers sat beside a console across from him. To Cutter, Rogers looked slightly depressed. After taking a sip from his cup he spoke to Rogers.

"You calmed down yet."

"Yeah kind of," he replied.

"Don't blame yourself, from what I heard the first group open fired almost without warning, didn't even respond to the first contact package, and the second group attacked as soon as they exited the device," said Cutter trying to make him feel better.

Alex knew Cutter was right, though there had always been trouble with pirates and slavers that dared to try and exist outside of Hutt Space attacking remote small colonies, they were usually put down very quickly. Not since the Mandalorian War and the Outer Rim Purges had innocent civilians lost their lives in a battle. The fact that it had been on his watch made it difficult on him.

As she continued to sieve through the information, Serina found something surprising.

"Admiral, Captain," She said to them both, "you need to see this." As she said that the information Scott was feeding her stopped and Scott transited from the alien Frigate to the _Spirit of Fire_, his holographic form appearing not far from Serina.

Serina set up a link between her and Rogers's and Cutter's Neural implants. They began looking at the information which had been translated into English thanks to the translation program. They were rather shocked by what they were reading.

"Another alien alliance," said Cutter.

''I have to tell you when we started this fight I thought we were dealing with at least two hostile races, I didn't expect this,'' Said Rogers. Just then Sergeant Forge entered the bridge and handed Scott's chip back to Rogers. Alex walked up to Scott's avatar; he placed his hand on the chip and disappeared.

"I'll head back to the _Dauntless_ and make my report" said Rogers to Cutter.

"We'll tow the Frigate back to Shanxi and drop the prisoners off with General Williams. Serina get this Intel to him and the Senate, they'll all want to see it," Said Cutter.

As both men parted ways they both wondered what the future might hold.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter is finally done. I'm sorry this took longer than I thought it would. But now first contact with Citadel space has occurred. What will the future hold. Stay tuned to find out.**

**The next chapter will feature a few new characters in the OSA and a background story on them.**

**Both the Batarians and the Turians mistook the Paris-class heavy frigates as Cruisers. That's because they have a length of 535 meters. In Council Space they would be considered small Cruisers.**

******I've also created a poll regarding the gender of Noble 6. This poll will be open until my next chapter is posted.**

**I will try and update again either during the weekend or sometime next week.**


	5. Chapter 5: Talks and Preperations

**May 19, 2650**

**Core Worlds**

**Coruscant system**

**High Charity**

**Military Council Chambers**

High Charity, the holy city of the San 'Shyuum and once the capital of the Covenant Empire. The mushroom like planetoid station stood at 464 Kilometers in length and 348 Kilometers (216.2 miles) in width. It was currently floating in orbit around the artificial world of Coruscant. The station was powered by a Forerunner Key Ship, or Dreadnought. The station served as the second biggest center of cultural and economical center in the OSA, the biggest being Coruscant. There are also shops, restaurants and recreational facilities, serving the wealthy residents who lived and worked throughout the station.

It was once the capital of the OSA, but now served as the headquarters of the OSA High Military Council (HMC), made up of the highest ranking officers from almost every species in the OSA. The MC was currently is session in the war chambers. It was here in these very same chambers that the Prophets of Truth, Mercy and Regret declared their genocide war on humanity one-hundred and twenty-five years ago, the military leaders of the OSA discussed military actions and operations throughout OSA space.

The current session should have been one of celebration. The fleet that had been sent to aid the Autobots in retaking Cybertron had a few hours ago returned successful. Instead the chambers were filled with an atmosphere of anger and hatred thanks to the news sent by Captain Rogers and Admiral Cutter. Most of the races tried to keep their anger hidden, trying to be professional. But that did not stop some of Sangheili, Jiralhanae, Twi'leks, Mandalorians, Wookiees, Keelish, Lycans, and Zabrak present. Those that sat beside them could practically feel the rage coming from them.

All the leaders of all the OSA's military's filled the room. Figures such as Arbiter Thel Vadam, Jedi Master Rada Vadam, Jiralhanae Chieftain Martin, Master Chief John-117 leader of all Spartans, Lord of Admirals Terrance Hood, Admiral Gial Ackbar, Canderous Ordo also known as Mandalore the Preserver, and the Director of ONI Catherine Elizabeth Halsey to name a few.

When they had heard about the double attack at Shanxi Device, now known as a Mass Relay, everyone was shocked. After it was reported that both attacks ended in victory for the UNSC they all had breathed better. Captain Rogers had requested "feelers" to be sent to Shanxi to study the recovered alien bodies from the first attack, and to glean information from the captured aliens from the second attack. The HMC had approved. The feelers had sent their report and findings back an hour ago.

'Feelers' are people who have underwent the bioengineering procedure to acquire the Protheans skill of transmitting and receiving data just from touching people or objects. This procedure, though, was incredibly expensive to perform. As such, there were only a few people who had this skill and were highly valued for it. Some Jedi were able to do this however through use of the force. Anyway, the point was that a team of these 'Feelers' had managed to extract the wanted information from the aliens bodies, who were just discovered to call themselves 'Batarians' and 'Turians', and it was anything but good.

_"Are you sure this information correct," asked Halsey._

_"Yes Director Halsey, the four eyed_ _aliens known as the 'Batarians' are slavers. The ones we fought were hired by their government the Batarian Hegemony to activate the Mass Relay and scout out the Shanxi system for new __resources for the Hegemony, and if they found a new race to enslave it,"_ replied Jedi Master Quinlan Vos.

Quinlan Vos was a human Jedi Master who was renowned for being the best 'feeler' in the OSA, his natural force abilities only further enhanced his psychometric powers. He was also known for his hunting, tracking, infiltration, assassination, and espionage and counter-intelligence skills. He was the head of the team that was sent to Shanxi to study the alien bodies and glean information.

"How do these Turians fit into the picture," asked Thel Vadam.

_"They were sent to stop the Batarians from activating the Relay, which seems to be against citadel law. They engaged the Batarians with both sides taking damage. When the science teams activated the Relay in the Shanxi system the Relay on their side was activated as well. After splitting up their fleet to delay the Turians the ship's Captain Rogers's first encountered belonging to the Batarains entered the Relay."_

_"Captain Rogers report said that he delivered the first contact package but the Batarians didn't respond. Can you tell us why?" Lord Hood asked._

_"Yes sir, when the Batarian Commander in charge of the fleet saw the package he believed we were a peaceful maybe pacifist people. His thoughts exactly were "These aliens were peaceful, which meant that they would be much easier to enslave as you could install fear and manners into civilized beings much easier then into wild beasts". It goes without saying that had they met any other OSA race they would have tried the same thing."_

This lead to increased growling and muttering from the Sangheili, Jiralhanae, Twi'leks, Mandalorians, Wookiee's, Keelish, Lycans, and Zabrak present.

Halsey knew tempers were going to boil over soon. But still she continued. _"Why did the Turians attack?"_

_"Well the Captain of the Frigate we captured wasn't very forthcoming. But that wasn't any problem. With what I read off him and the information from the Codex activation of a dormant Mass Relay is forbidden by citadel law every since the citadel's encounter with the Rachni, which led to the Rachni Wars. The Turian Captain learned we had opened the Relay after the Batarians had already gone through. His plan was to subdue us for breaking council law and gain the Hierarchy, the Turians government a new client race." _

The professional atmosphere that barley contained the anger being felt in the chambers was finally broken by Rada, he was wearing armor similar to his father, what he had read about the Turians and Batarians in the Codex and everything he had heard from Master Vos made him lose it. Filled with extreme rage, he violently through the data pad that had been given to him. The pad flew over the heads of several of the senators, several having to duck; it came to a stop as it shattered like glass against the wall.

"Honourless, murdering cowards!" he roared so loud that Martin, Thel and John swore they could see his veins on his neck.

"Rada, please calm down," asked his father, not wanting everyone to voice their anger, though he himself could understand his son's actions and felt the same way.

Both John and Thel placed their hands on Rada's shoulders, helping him to calm. His breathing was heavy as he spoke. His eyes closed.

"Forgive me please?"

"There is nothing to forgive Rada," said Lord Hood, everyone knew that Rada had a temper, and he usually kept it in check very well. But sometimes, like with his actions on Pandora against the RDA, the effort became too much. Plus, they all felt the same way as him.

The military councilor for the Wookiees General Tarfful stood up as voiced his thoughts.

(_Speaking Wookiee, translating): _"But Rada is correct. Everyone knows of the Wookiees famous temper when we become enraged. It has been a part of my people since the time of our ancestors. Yet even then, we still keep to a code of honor, which includes never kill the innocent or those who can't protect themselves. This codex describes Turians as honorable; they don't know the meaning of the word". He then gave a big roar. "There, is, NO, honor in what they have done," he started off slowly, "THEY KILLED DEFENSELESS CIVILIANS INSTEAD OF FACING A REAL THREAT," Shouting out the last part. His guards roared in approval.

Fleet Admiral Thomas Lasky stood up to speak. "The Turians actions were uncalled for," he said trying his best not to sound like he was OK with what he was about to say, "but they were merely following their laws by trying to stop us from activating any other Relays." The mention of the law infuriated most.

"A law me had no way of knowing," shouted Fleet Master Rtas 'Vadum. "What right do they have to kill civilians, to open fire on those that they have never met for breaking their laws and don't know it?" He said all this while staring daggers at Lasky.

Admiral Gial Ackbar, grand leader of the Mon-Calamari armada, then spoke.

"I agree with all of you. But this meeting was called so we may decide on a course of action, not to argue among ourselves. What has arguing and squabbling ever accomplished? If I may, I would like to borrow a quote from Abraham Lincoln, who you all know was the 16th President of the United States on Earth long before the UNSC:"A house divided against itself cannot stand.'' We have survived all these years together by showing unity and brotherhood. Let us continue to show that today and allow our minds to settle so that they may become clear."

This seemed to calm everyone down and allowed them to clear their heads. A few even looked ashamed of themselves.

"Thank you Admiral Ackbar," said Captain Miranda Johnson nee Keyes. "You speak with the wisdom of a fine leader. In anger we often forget our duty and responsibilities, which we must never do. Our goal here today is to discuss a plan of action."

"What is there to discuss? A strike force must be prepared to strike at not only the Turians but these Batarians as well. Their actions must not go unpunished!"

Everyone looked at the person that the voice belonged to. He was one of the most ruthless and famous military figures in the entire OSA, General Grievous.

"General, what are you proposing?" Miranda asked.

"A double counter strike. Neither of these attacks on Shanxi can go unpunished. I suggest that a strike force be sent to attack the Turians before they can organize a bigger offensive against us. Meanwhile, Jedi Master Vos's report said that he managed to get the location of the base the Batarians used to supply their fleet. If I may have a strike-force put under my command, I can launch a quick and deadly offensive against it. Clean and swift. Plus we would gain a staging point for future operations in enemy territory." Both of these arrogant bantha races seek to enslave us in some way. My people have lived through that already. I tell you now, no power or person exists that makes a slave out of me or my people again!"

This earned a roar and applause of approval from the old Covenant races as well as from the Twi'leks, Mandalorians, Wookiee's, Keelish, Lycans, and Zabrak present. All of whom said something similar.

Lord Hood banged quieted the chambers and then spoke.

"Your plan proposes an acceptable course of action general, with some adjustments. Master Vos can you tell us anything that might prove useful in planning a counter attack?"

_Yes sir, we have acquired the location of a Turian planet that should serve as an excellent choice for a counter-attack against the Turians. It is called **Gothis**. It serves as were the Turians test and trains their new recruits, as well as test new weapons tech. Basically it is our equivalent to Reach." And as the good general stated we have the location of the base the Batarians used to supply their fleet. They call the planet Torfan. I should warn you that the Batarians use the planet to hold slaves and deal with other mercenary and pirate groups. Expect moderate to heavy resistance._ _We know from the codex that their laws state that a meeting with a new alien race is too brought before to their Citadel Council. If they follow their laws the council should send a diplomatic envoy to Shanxi. But if they keep our meeting a secret, they will send a large force to conquer Shanxi sense they detected it on their scanners and believe that it's our one planet. They also don't know that their facing an alliance."_

Lucian, the leader of the Lycan Clans, spoke for the first time. "Good we can maintain the feint and then take them by surprise."

Lord Hood looked at everyone then spoke about the plan he had concocted. "Whether they send a diplomatic envoy or an invasion it's crucial that we send troops and ships to reinforce Shanxi, just in case. We must maintain the illusion that the Turians will be facing only one race. An allied fleet can be waiting outside the system to reinforce Shanxi and finish off the enemy if need be. If the Turians attack Shanxi they will be destroyed. Then a counter-attack can be planned on Gothis. In the meantime, I will give General Grievous the go ahead to pick a strike force to attack the Slaver/Pirate base at Torfan and level it to the ground."

Selene, the leader of the Vampire Coven, asked, "Lord Hood, who will lead the fleet at Shanxi?"

Lasky rose from his seat so fast he was almost a blur. "Infinity and Battlegroup Dakota volunteer Lord of Admirals sir!"

Lord Hood looked at the room and asked, "All in favor?"

Everyone raised their hands.

"It's settled then. Admiral Lasky will take the _Infinity _and her Battlegroup to reinforce Captain Cutter and Rogers in Shanxi's space defense. All their marines, ODST's, armor support, and Spartan compliments will be placed on Shanxi to reinforce General William's in the ground defense. I am also authorizing the dispatch of Battlegroup Tsunami."

This got an understandable shock from most of the chambers occupants. Battlegroup Tsunami was part of the UNSC 23rd Heavy Fleet. It was made up of only twenty-five vessels, but it was a fleet designed with one purpose; destroy the enemy with overwhelming power, like a Tsunami. Consisting of two Carriers, ten of the new Golem_-class Assault Destroyers, _seven of the new _Orin-class Battlecruisers,_ five of the new _Phoenix-class Battleships, _and at the head of the battlegroup a _Thermopylae-class Super Carrier. _Some would call this overkill. But when it came to an impending alien invasion there was no such thing as overkill.

"General Grievous you are free to choose your fleet, anyone who volunteers to go with you may."

"Thank you Lord Hood, I promise you will not be disappointed," said Grievous.

Hood then turned back to the projector. "Master Vos please connect us with General Williams. We need to talk about troop deployments and strategy."

* * *

**May 21, 2650/2157**

**Apien Crest**

**Trebia System**

**Palaven**

**Hierarchy Fleet High Command**

On the Turian homeworld, Tonn Actuss was waiting for the military leadership of the Hierarchy to give their verdict on his battle with the Batarian pirates and the incident at Relay 314 following afterwards. For the past three hours they had been reading his reports over his battle with the pirates that destroyed half of his patrol fleet; and the skirmish with the unidentified race that destroyed most of the other half. He was hoping the Hierarchy would allow him another chance to finishing what he started, with an entire armada of ships at his command he was sure he could win. He knew that was unlikely however, at best he'd probably get demoted, to ether sever or Captain a Frigate. He didn't even want to think about the worst case.

The military leaders of the Hierarchy had three high ranking officials who were just finishing reading the reports Actuss had wrote for them. Admiral Mehrkuri was the first to start the conversation.

'Obviously Captain Actuss did the right thing upholding council law, by stopping this race from activating anymore Mass Relays.''

''We don't deny his actions were justified, but he had already lost half of his fleet and could have thought out his plan better," said admiral Krek. ''None the less we should be more concern about this new race; they have a mass accelerator more powerful than our own," his voice filled with some concern.

"Yes from the reports it appears that their accelerator can destroy one of our Cruisers with a single shot, though that is questionable since no one saw what happened to the _Spartus_ but with what is mentioned about the _Midnight Shadow_ it's more than likely what happened to _Spartus_," said admiral Lo.

"They must be an aggressive species, no race that's about to leave their home system would have weapons like that, so it's more than likely Actuss did the right thing by opening fire, they probably would have attacked anyway," said Admiral Mehrkuri.

"What I'm finding most interesting is their ships do not appear to use much Element Zero. Our ships sensors barley detected any on the enemy ships.''

''How is that possible?'' said admiral Lo. ''Element Zero is the bases for all technology in Citadel and Terminus space, even the Geth use eezo.''

"We must strike back and subdue this race and acquire their weapons and technology, if we can get our hands on it we can increase our power and authority in both Citadel and Terminus space, maybe even acquire a new client race in it,'' said admiral Mehrkuri.

"Yes if we can subdue them now, before the Council discovers what has happened, they will have to accept what we and whatever story we got this new species to say, as the truth," Said Lo.

"And once we obtain their technology the Hierarchy would be truly unstoppable. Who should lead the fleet back through relay 314?" asked Krek. All three of them took a moment to think about it. They all eventually rested on one person, Admiral Lo spoke first.

"General Desolas Arterius."Mehrkuri and Krek didn't even have to say anything, their faces said it all, they were in agreement.

"We must be careful about how we organize for the attack less the STG notices. We must be very subtle about where we draw our forces from," said Admiral Krek.

Everyone agreed with his thinking. They couldn't send to big a force all at once to Relay 314, or as big a force as they normally might or the Salarians would notice. It was decided that the _11th Expeditionary Fleet _would be sent to Relay 314, while the _12th Expeditionary Fleet _would move from patrol duty and stealthy join them at the Relay. Other forces would be discretely added from across the Hierarchy.

"Right have Tonn Actuss come in," shouted Mehrkuri.

Tonn Actuss walked into the meeting room; the admirals were sitting across from each other about to give him his final judgment. ''Captain Tonn Actuss you were brought before us over your battle with the pirates at Relay 314 and the following incident. We find you not guilty over both incidents. However, due to several questionable decisions on your part during the incident with the new race, some punishment is in order. You will not lead the assault back through the Relay, instead you will be demoted to captaining a Frigate and placed under the command of General Desolas Arterius who will lead the assault back through Relay 314, and attack the planet you believe to be the enemies home world.''

Tonn Actuss was happy and surprised. Not only would he be given another chance, but he will be under command of one of Palaven's greatest generals, Desloas Arterius. ''I will not fail the Hierarchy again,'' said Actuss. He saluted the Admirals and walked out of the meeting.

* * *

**May 21, 2650/2157**

**Shanxi system**

**Shanxi**

**Shanxi Defense Force HQ**

General Williams had just gotten off the QEC with the OSA High Military Council. He couldn't help but smile a little. Admiral Lasky was bringing _Infinity_ and Battlegroups Dakota and Tsunami to reinforce Shanxi. Other races such as the Wookiees and Lycans would be sending some ground troops as well. He would also be getting some **Katarn-class Commandos **from the Clone-Joint Species Army.

He entered the main control room to find Master Quinlan Vos waiting for him. The Jedi had a certain Jamaican look and the aura of a Hippie. But he did look good in his battle armor, which all Jedi wore.

"So how'd it go," asked Vos.

"We're going to be getting a lot of support. Admiral Lasky and his battlegroup as well as Battlegroup Tsunami are heading here to reinforce us. Lucian is sending the Alpha Dogs and General Tarfful is sending us four platoons as well," replied General Williams.

Quinlan raised his eyebrows. "That is a lot of help. But I was under the impression that we were trying to maintain the illusion that their only facing one race. If they manage to land troops they will contact their superiors."

"Don't worry. If they land troops on Shanxi our A.I's will jam all their communications going to and off the colony."

"And what is our plan of defense if they do, and will most likely, land troops," asked Master Vos.

"Our anti-air guns will open fire on their landing craft. All the heavy fire should force them to land in the woods. Once the enemy lands the Lycans will launch an ambush and surprise the Turians. When they scatter the Wookiees will launch a second ambush and pick them off," replied Williams.

Vos nodded. "It's a good plan. But what about the capitals defense? That will be their priority target."

Were evacuating as many civilians as we can. The rest will be sent to the bunkers when our long rage sensor probes on the other side of the Relay detect anything coming. Defense lines and checkpoints are being set up. Anti-infantry and vehicle guns are being distributed. We'll make our final plans and solid up our defenses once our reinforcements arrive. I'm giving you command of some of my men when the battle starts."

Quinlan Vos could only nod. He knew this upcoming fight would be big. Hopefully they could hold out.

* * *

**May 23, 2650/2157**

**Undisclosed System**

**Turian Colony**

**Edessan**

**Orbit Turian Fleet**

Orbiting the Turian colony world of Edessan , a fleet of different size and class ships was assembling and preparing to launch an attack on the home planet of the hostile race beyond Relay 314, to subdue them and obtain their technology to strengthen the Hierarchy's military. A Turian was looking out a window of a space station at the assembled fleet, that he would soon command, but until then he had to prepare the fleet and assemble the best soldiers for the ground assault.

''General Arterius how goes the preparation for our attack on this new race," asked Commander Vyrnnus.

Desolas looked at Vrynnus as he stood next to him then looked at the fleet. ''We are on schedule. I'm just finishing the roster and about to go over Captain Actuss's information about the enemy's strength.'' said Desolas. He was surprised by the enemy's weapons and ships shields; a mass accelerator that puts out more power and destructive force then their own weapons, and also their ships have very little element zero at all with shields that can block guardian lasers, and guardian lasers that can shot farther than the Salarians ships. He can see why the Hierarchy wanted their weapons and any other technology they have.

"You may go Vyrnnus," said Desolas.

"Yes general," replied Vrynnus. As he walked away to make preparations, Saren, Desolas's brother, walked past him and went to stand beside him; Saren Arterius was a growing Turian famous in the military and would soon become the youngest Spectre ever in Council space.

''Saren come to see me off to win a huge victory for the Hierarchy," asked Desolas as he turned to face Saren.

''I wish I was going with you, but I'm needed elsewhere," replied Saren. ''But I know you will come back a hero for all Turians, I have something here to toast your victory." Saren brought up an expensive bottle of Turian brandy.

Desolas took the bottle and looked at it, it was his favorite kind. ''Save this for me when I return we will drink it together on Palaven. "He handed the bottle back to Saren and the two look out in space looking forward to that moment.

* * *

**May 23, 2650/2157**

**Core Worlds**

**Coruscant **

**Council/Senate Building**

Coruscant, the capital of the OSA and the center of the galactic community in the Orion arm of the galaxy! The entire planet was one big city and was the most politically important planet in the galaxy. It had a population of 1 trillion and served as the biggest economic and cultural marvel of the OSA. Few planets could match its economic might. Members of every race in the OSA lived in Galactic City. It was also home to the Jedi High Temple (headquarters of the Jedi High Council who lead the Jedi Order).

The Senate/Council building, also known as the **Senate Rotunda**, **Senate Tower**, **Convocation Center**, or **Senate Dome**, located in the Senate District, served as the seat of the galactic government in the Orion Arm. In the **Grand Convocation Chamber **(the largest room in the building), also referred to as the **Senate Rotunda**, **Senate Arena**, **Senate Chamber**, **Great Rotunda**, sat the Galactic Senate and Galactic Council. Their primary duties were to mediate any disputes between star systems, worlds and cultures, to regulate trade between systems, to protect and care for citizens in need and to provide mutual defense in face of threats to the OSA.

The Senate was made up of Senators and Representatives from every race and colony in the OSA. One Senator and one Representative were chosen by their sector/colony to represent them in the Senate. The Council was made up of one member of each race in the OSA (currently 40). The council led the Senate and held ultimate power in any decision. Together these two political bodies held more power than any other body in the OSA.

It had been three day's since the High Military Council session at High Charity. This session was being held in the Senate to discuss what the OSA's next action would be should the Turians or Citadel Council attack again. The HMC was also attending, some though appearing by hologram. Those in attendance that were not present in the last session included General Xavier, son of Lucian the Alpha of all Lycans, Sonja, Lucian's wife and Xavier's mother, and leader of the Vampire Coven, Sarah Lyons, the leader of the "**Lyons Pride"**, the most elite unit in the Brotherhood of Steel on Far Isle and leader of the Autobots Optimus Prime who appeared via hologram because of his size.

At first the double attack on Captain Rogers's fleet in the Shanxi system had scared the Senate about a possible invasion. When the new came of the fleet's victory they all breathed easier. When they learned about the civilian fleet that was slaughtered most of the Senate was calling for blood. The codex that had been captured and delivered to the Senate hadn't helped.

**"HOW DARE THEM!"**

**"WE MUST ACT NOW!"**

**"NO ONE WILL MAKE SLAVES OUT OF MY PEOPLE!" **

**"DEATH TO THE TURIANS!"**

These were only some of the calls being shouted by hundreds of angry senators. All of them overlapping the other in an angry uproar.

"We must act now. Strike hard and fast before they can attack again," said **Mee Deechi**, the Umabaran senator of the Umabaran homeworld of Umbara.

"Violence only breeds more violence. It may yet be possible for a peaceful solution," said Onaconda Farr, the Rodian senator of the Rodian homeworld of Rodia.

(_Speaking Wookiee, translating): _"Democracy is fine when it is possible Onacanda. But these aliens have shown no sign of favoring diplomacy. Military action must be taken," said Yarua, the Wookiee senator of the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyk.

Shouts like these ran throughout the chamber. Some supporting peace, others supporting war.

Finally the Jiralhanae Councilor, Agmar, had had enough. He let out a big roar that silenced the chamber and shouted "WE SHALL HAVE ORDER."

The Human Councilor Richard Kobe spoke up. "Senators of the OSA galactic congress. I ask that you stray from angry words and allow us to talk like civilized people. While I share your anger we must not allow it to rule us and make our decisions."

This seemed to pacify the senate.

"Now, the High Military Council has proposed a what I believe will be a successful counter-strike military campaign that we can all agree on. Does anyone else here wish to speak?"

"I do Councilor."

All heads turned to either look at their screens or directly at the speaker. The speaker was a beautiful women, a women who was well known in the senate for her firm belief in democracy and her genuine care for not only her people, but all people of the OSA; she was compassionate, always considering other people before herself, and she stood firm in what she believed in, she was also a persuasive and extremely empathetic speaker. This women was Senator Padmé Amidala Skywalker.

"The chair recognizes Senator Padmé Amidala Skywalker."

Padmé rose and addressed an improvised speech to the Senate. _"Honorable Senators and Councilors of the OSA. Today I have heard your cries for blood over the double attack at Shanxi. I share your feelings of contempt, but allowing ourselves to be ruled by contempt will accomplish nothing. After the Human-Covenant War Humanity had every right to hold contempt towards the Sangheili for what was done to us in the war. Yet despite holding every reason to hold on to that fire of hate that was felt by all humans for so long, Lord Hood added the Arbiter in the Sangheili Civil War. In return the Sangheili helped us destroy the Storm Covenant at Requiem. Through laying down our hatred we have formed closer bonds of friendship and brother hood than anyone could have thought possible. We formed the OSA together. And all throughout our nations existence we have been tested by contempt due to conflict, the Kig'Yar pirate war, the Slavery War, the CIS, __the Quarren/Mon Cala Civil War,_ and the Mandalorians. All of these events and people were responsible for some atrocious acts, and these acts could have lead us to use our full might to destroy those who sought harm to use and others.

_But we didn't, and we didn't because we are not warmongers. In every conflict in our history, from the World Wars of Earth to the Mandalorian Wars, no matter how bad the conflict or what acts our enemy took we have always looked for and have been open to a peaceful solution. We have always taken actions that would lead to peace and avoid fighting when possible. I believe that we don't have to fight.  
_

_These new aliens are a part of something bigger, an alliance similar to use that we have only seen a small piece of. We cannot judge the many by the acts of the few. This codex we have read shows that there are those who would prefer to work with us and bring about peace instead of more conflict. But if __we offer them only violence, they can only show us violence in return! Many will lose their lives. All will lose their freedom._"

_"I urge this Senate to remember that their duty is to preserve life and prevent war and seek peace at all times possible. For if we forget that, we are no better than those we are calling monsters. The road to peace is a long one, and if begins with you and your decision hear today."_

Padmé had always believed in democracy and doing what was right. She had also always been an inspiring speaker. Her speech had just earned her a round of applause from the entire senate. Even those who were moments ago hell bent on war.

The Councilors spoke among themselves before Remorse stood up from the Councilor podium and spoke. "Senator Padmé you are a credit to this entire legislative body. Too often do we allow our feelings to cloud our judgment and lead us to forget our duty. We need wise and good honest people like you Senator to keep us in check."

The Iktotchi Councilor Ansuya spoke, "Perhaps the High Military Council's plan can be rectified? I purpose to go along with sending reinforcements to Shanxi. If a diplomatic fleet is sent by this Citadel Council or the Turians than we shall send a diplomatic envoy to greet them. If they attack then we will defend Shanxi. Should the planet fall or not we will counter attack. Councilor Mira (the Miraluka Councilor) and I have deemed and seen that this offers the most probable path of success."

Everyone in the OSA knew about the natural psychological Force abilities of the Miraluka and Iktotchi though they were not always taken seriously. But everyone agreed.

"We are all in favor. I deem this session over," said Sonja, who served as the Vampire Councilor.

The senators of the senate disembarked and left. Padmé was approached by her two long friends and advisers Onaconda Farr and Bail Organa, who was the Senator and Viceroy of Alderaan.

"You did well today Padmé. I am proud of you my sweet," said Onaconda.

"Thank you Uncle Ono," said Padmé, calling him by the name she had given her close family friend.

"I have rarely heard such words of conviction. You should be proud," said Bail.

"I know I am." This was said by a new voice. Everyone turned to the newcomer who turned out to be a male human Jedi. Padmé could only smile at the man. He was young and handsomely attractive, he was 1.88 meters tall, he had light brown hair, beautiful blue eyes, and a scar that ran just above his right eyebrow and down his right eye.

"It's nice when a women feels appreciated," said Padmé.

"Good thing I know how to treat a lady," replied the man.

Padmé couldn't contain herself anymore and she leaned up to kiss her husband, Anakin Skywalker.

* * *

**AN: Hello everyone. I'm sorry I wasn't able to upload this chapter last week I've been very busy with college. Anyway I've updated now and I hope you all like it. There will be a codex below to explain a few things. A codex will also be added next chapter to explain some of the new ships.**

**The poll results for Noble Six's gender are in and it was a tie. So I will be the deciding vote. I'm going to go for male. Tell me what you thought about Padmé's speech, did I get her character right.**

**The next chapter will be the Second Battle of Shanxi and the start of the First Contact War between the OSA and the Citadel Council. So you all soon.**

* * *

******CODEX ENTRY- ****ORION SYSTEMS ALLIANCE **

******************OSA**- _The Orion Systems Alliance is an alliance made up of a collection of different sentient species that exist in the Orion arm of the galaxy. The OSA is the center of galactic government in the Orion arm, and any species that joins the OSA must follow the laws the OSA senate/council creates. There are a total of forty species in the OSA. At one time the OSA was once known as the_ _Covenant_.

**GOVERNMENT- **_The OSA is under the control of a senate made up of senators and representatives from every colony in the OSA, including homeworlds. The senate is headed by a councilor made up of one member from each race in the OSA to represent them. They handle the day to day problems the embassies of the different races bring to them and are responsible for protecting said races. The senate/council also hold the power to declare war. A series of checks and balances exists between the senate and the council, which means that the senate can limit the power of the council and override their decisions and vice versa. There are other branches and committees in the OSA that deal with other problems that even the senate/council can't keep up with._

_**ECONOMY- **__The OSA's economy is not run by a single galactic bank or many banks. A universal money system is used by all in the OSA, but it doesn't run the economy alone. Rather, the senate/council ask for each colony to contribute resources to other colonies that need help and for building ships __and weapons for their military. The OSA has a galactic market where the member species can buy or trade goods to each_ other.

___**MILITARY AND** **INTELLIGENCE- **__The OSA military is the strongest military in the galaxy. It is run by the highest ranking admirals and supreme commanders in the Human and Sangheili, Jiralhanae, Mandalorian, Mon Calamari/Quarren, and Twi'lek governments. The OSA fleet is a combination of the member species who can build and operate ships, but any member from any race who wishes to serve on a ship belonging to a different race may. The OSA fleet is the largest and strongest in OSA space which can be called upon anywhere and still have reserves to protect High Charity and Coruscant. Patrol fleets big and small patrol sectors, trade lanes, regional territories, and the borders of the OSA with many emergency response fleets waiting and ready to go to should a patrol fleet or colony need help. ______The total combined fleet is under the command of now Lord of Admirals Terrance Hood._

_______**ONI** and **The Union** handle counter-espionage and spy operations as part of their information gathering duties, using resources provided by the OSA they are able to fund and set-up projects to test out new equipment and building stealth ships. ONI and The Union is composed of small units of Human, Sangheili or other species who are handpicked to be operatives who monitor developing situations or undertake covert missions._

_______**SPEC-OPS**- __Special Operations Division or G.I JOE are __the OSA Council's elite, made up from the best men and women from the top military units in the OSA, invested with the Council's authority, they are vital to keeping the peace across OSA space. They are individuals who act either on the Council's orders or on their own initiative, to preserve galactic stability. Sometimes, in situations where the Council cannot be seen to act officially, they will send Spec-ops instead. Spec-ops have more freedom from the law than most groups, but still answer to their superiors and also to the OSA Council. All details of them are classified._


	6. Chapter 6: The Second Battle of Shanxi

**AN: I've completed this chapter. I hope you all like it. This chapter will have some reference to JediSpectre177's HaloMass Effect: Ruptured Universe Chapter 4. Battle of Shanxi, but it will ultimately be mine. **

**Once again my poll for Noble Six's gender has ended and it will be a male. I will be giving him the name Jarrod. If anyone has a better name please let me know and I might change the name.**

**There will be a codex at the end of this chapter. Again I wish to thank JediSpectre177; this chapter is somewhat a template to JediSpectre177's fic HaloMass Effect: Ruptured Universe's chapter 4. **

**I do not own Halo, Mass Effect, Star Wars, or any other franchise.**

* * *

**May 27, 2560/2157**

**Shanxi System**

**Shanxi Orbit**

**UNSC _INFINITY_**

The _UNSC Infinity _was the first ship of its kind and upon its completion was called the culmination of human achievement. It finished construction in 2553, after the Human-Covenant War. The ship served as Fleet Admiral Thomas Lasky's flagship and was the first of a new line of _Infinity-class heavy warships. _

The ship was 5.6 kilometers (3.5 miles) from bow to stern, placing it as the largest vessel built by the UNSC. It was equipped with four Main Mac Cannons, 1,100 missile pods of three types: Archer, Rapier, and Howler, totaling the ship's missile payload at 25,900 missiles, and a twin energy projector. Close-in defense against enemy missiles, fighters, and boarding craft is provided by the ship's M965 Fortress point defense system, a network of 830 70mm automatic cannons and the ships Spartan Laser Cannons. It also has a number of Mark 2488 Magnetic Accelerator Cannons or Onagers.

The ship had gone through many changes since the creation of the OSA. Like all other UNSC ships since the joining of the Mon-Calamari the Mac guns had been upgraded to allow the firing of an Ion canon. While smaller warships like Frigates, Destroyers, and Cruisers were now equipped with a fusion of Titanium-A3/Durasteal armor plating, the heavier ships such as the _Infinity _were equipped with a fusion of Titanium-A3/Beskar armor plating. This made it extremely strong and heat, laser, and plasma resistant.

Another change was that all UNSC ships were now built for fighting in short range battles as well as long range. After the war with the Covenant, the brass saw that their ships focused too much on long rage fighting. So funding was put into increasing the UNSC's knife fighting capabilities, and it paid off. All UNSC warships, including _Infinity,_ were now equipped with Mk.2 Onager cannons on their port, starboard, dorsal and ventral sides. Covenant Pulse lasers were later added, as well as Turbolasers and Ion Cannon guns were added after the Mon-Calamari joined the OSA. All in all, the _Infinity _was a powerhouse of a ship and you did not want to be on the receiving end of its guns.

One more noticeable upgrade was that the _Infinity _was originally designed to carry ten _Charon-class light frigates_ as sub-vessels. Now it could carry ten _Paris-class Heavy Frigates _as sub-vessels.

Fleet Admiral Thomas Lasky was currently standing in the bridge of his ship; he was one of the most popular military leaders in the OSA. He was a veteran of the Human-Covenant War, having been only a cadet at **Corbulo Academy of Military Science **or** CAMS **on **Circinius IV** when the war started. He was part of Hastati Squad, a freshmen cadet squad in the class of 2529 during the Insurrectionist War. Known for his renegade attitude as an "innie sympathizer," Thomas was shunned universally by squadmates and other classmates alike. Lasky was not hesitant whatsoever to express his views on the ongoing conflict with the Insurrectionists, even with the ardent stance on the conquering of the rebel effort by the majority of Corbulo Academy's staff and cadet corps. The constant display of pacifism and sympathy towards the Insurrectionist cause did not hamper his enthusiasm to successfully lead his team into combat using tactics that would overwhelm the enemy, albeit with tactics that would cause them to peacefully capitulate. Many believed that Thomas would not live up to the level of excellence set by his brother Cadmon, by then a marine junior officer in the ODSTs, nor the expectations of his estranged mother to at the very least, graduate from the academy. At the conclusion of his freshman year from 2525 to 2526, lingering doubts about his competency as a future officer were alleviated. When the Covenant attacked the academy, Lasky was able to lead the survivors of Hastati Squad to safety with the help of Spartan-117.

Throughout the war Lasky served in the navy admirably and rose to the rank of commander by its end. After the war he was placed as Captain Andrew Del Rio's XO aboard the _Infinity_. After Del Rio abandoned Master Chief on Requiem Del Rio was relieved of command and command was given to Lasky. Six months later he had obtained the rank of Captain and given command of the _Infinity_ and Battlegroup Dakota. The battlegroup consisted of 52 ships; the _Infinity, _13 _Halcyon MK.2-class light cruisers_, 28 _Paris-class Heavy Frigates_, and 10 _Charon-class light frigates. _After the _Charon-class light frigate _was discontinued from use and mothballed they were replaced in the battlegroup by 10 _Gorgon-class Heavy Destroyers._ Throughout the years he continued to serve admirably in the navy, from the Requiem campaign to the Mandalorian Wars, and had risen to the rank of Fleet Admiral.

Lasky also has a very high moral standard. When Admiral Osman ordered the execution of Dr. Halsey, he attempted to persuade Commander Palmer not to commit this action; showing his compassion for members of the UNSC as well as civilians whom he joined the UNSC to protect, not to kill.

Currently the admiral was going through battle strategy on his Data pad. _Infinity _and Battlegroup Dakota had arrived in the Shanxi system three days ago, along with Battlegroup Tsunami. They had sent all their armor and troop support down to General Williams to posture Shanxi's defenses. Spartan-IV forces were also deployed from the two battlegroups down to Shanxi.

Additional support had come from the _Forward Unto Dawn Mk.2_, which had been rebuilt as an upgraded _Paris-class Heavy Frigate_, arriving in system transporting Lucian and his Lycan forces, as well as Wookiee Chieftain Tarfful and a platoon of Wookiee soldiers. Master Chief Supreme Commander John-117 had also arrived aboard the _Dawn _with the Blue Team stating that he would be taking command of all Spartan Forces on Shanxi. A Clone Commando team had arrived to fight, while the Acclamator that had dropped them off returned to the fleet outside the system that would serve as reinforcements should Lasky need them.

The fleet around Shanxi stood as followed: _Infinity_ and Battlegroup Dakota combined with Battlegroup Tsunami made up seventy-five ships. Combined with Captain Alex Rogers's ships and Admiral Cutter's fleet plus the _Dawn_, the grand total came up to ninety ships of one _Infinity-class warship_, fourteen _Halcyon MK.2-class light cruisers_, thirty-seven _Paris-class Heavy Frigates_, ten _Gorgon-class Heavy Destroyers_, ten _Golem-class Assault Destroyers, seven Orin-class Battlecruisers, five_ _Phoenix-class Battleships,_ _two_ _Marathon-class Heavy Cruisers, two UNSC Carriers, one Thermopylae-class Super Carrier, and the Spirit of Fire. _They were also backed by fighter support and the four **Orbital Defense Platforms **orbiting Shanxi.

The plan was simple. Lasky would be in charge of the whole fleet in the upcoming battle. The next in command would be Admiral Cutter, followed by Captain Rogers and Captain Potter (head commander of Battlegroup Tsunami). Lasky would take half the fleet and hide behind the nearest gas giant "**Ervin**". He would take with him the _Infinity_, twenty _Paris-class Heavy Frigates_, the ten _Golem-class Assault Destroyers_, two _Halcyon MK.2-class light cruisers_, the seven _Orin-class Battlecruisers_, and the five _Phoenix-class Battleships_.

The other half of the fleet, under the command of Admiral Cutter, made up of twelve _Halcyon MK.2-class light cruisers_, ten _Gorgon-class Heavy Destroyers_, seventeen _Paris-class Heavy Frigates; _including the_ Forward Unto Dawn_, _two_ _Marathon-class Heavy_ _Cruisers_, _two UNSC Carriers_, _one Thermopylae-class Super Carrier,_ and the_ Spirit of Fire_ would stay in orbit over Shanxi to defend the colony and wait for the Turians or Citadel Council to show up. The idea was that Cutter would draw the Turians towards his fleet and close to Shanxi. Lasky would then come in and perform a flanking maneuver and cut a line straight through the Turian fleet and then surround it. If all went well the Turians would then be surrounded from the front and back, then both fleets would slowly close in and finish them off. If any ground battle took place General Williams would be in charge of Shanxi's ground defense.

That was the plan anyway. Lasky just hoped that it wouldn't come to a fight.

"All ships are in position and your half of the fleet is ready to jump to Ervin on your command Admiral Lasky. General Williams has also contacted us and says that the all of Shanxi's defenses are as ready as he can make them", said the _Infinity's_ A.I Roland, whose avatar form was that of a World War 2 pilot.

"Thank you Roland", said Lasky. "All we can do now is wait and see what happens."

* * *

**May 27, 2560/2157**

**Exodus Cluster**

**Relay 314**

**Turian Fleet**

Currently gathered was the 11th and 12th Expeditionary Fleet plus the 69th reserve battlegroup. These three fleets combined for a total of 120 turian ships consisting of 68 Frigates, 42 Cruisers, and 10 Dreadnoughts. They would be attacking the new enemy race's home world and had amassed at Relay 314.

General Desolas Arterius was currently sitting in the command chair on his personal dreadnought _Wings of Glory_; he was checking the final results of the Fleet. He was looking through his data pad at the information on the fleet; to him it appeared everything was in order. All ships had arrived on schedule. There was some delay due to the need to be stealthy when the Hierarchy was gathering the ships for this assault. But Desolas was sure that in the end it would be worth the effort.

''General, Captain Actuss is on the line for you sir," said the comm.'s officer.

Desolas walked up to the com and pressed a button, on the holoscreen Actuss popped up. ''Give me a status report," said Desolas.

''All ships are ready to proceed through the relay on your orders," replied Actuss.

''We've sent probes through the relay and there are no enemy ships on the other side,'' said Actuss. ''But the probes detect a large armada of ships over the planet we detected last time."

''Alright, begin to move out now; we will subdue this species and take their technology for the Hierarchy,'' said Desolas.

The entire fleet began passing through the relay, but they were unaware that a probe had been monitoring them and was sending signals through the relay to Shanxi.

* * *

**Shanxi System**

**Shanxi Orbit**

**UNSC _Infinity_**

**Bridge**

Lasky was just about to get off the comm. with Admiral Cutter when Roland appeared in the holotank.

''Admiral the probes from the other side of the relay and the one in the system have detected a fleet of 120 ship silhouettes matching that of Turian design, ETA six minutes,'' said the AI.

"Did you catch that Cutter," asked Lasky.

"Yeah Serena has just informed me, 120 ships, we'd better get ready. I'll let you address the fleet," said Cutter.

"Alright Roland I'm going to open a neural line to all ships and planetary ground forces,'' said Lasky. He stood up and walked two steps forward then waited until Roland gave him the all clear.

_(Making connection…connection acquired. Ready to receive message.)_

_This is Fleet Admiral Thomas Lasky to all ships and ground forces. The turians are back and they aren't here to make friends. They will be here in five minutes. You all know the plan and what to do. Should any turians attempt to flee back to the relay destroy them, but allow one to escape. Other than that just follow my and Admiral Cutters orders.'' Good luck everyone, Gods speed."_

_(Connection Terminated.)_

"Roland prep Infinity and her fleet escort for slipspace launch," said Laky.

"Yes sir," said Roland giving a salute to the admiral.

In the orbit of Shanxi slipspace portals opened up taking Infinity and half the fleet to Ervin. Where they would wait for the right moment to engage the enemy.

Just as Admiral Lasky had left Captain (Admiral) Cutter gave out his orders.

"All ships into reverse chess formation. I want the Carriers and Super Carrier in the back with seven frigates, destroyers and the rest of the frigates in the middle, and all cruisers upfront with the Spirit of Fire. We will send a message to the turians asking them to stop and leave the system. If they do not comply we will open fire. After the first volleys are fired the _Spirit of Fire_ and the _Zeus_ (the UNSC Super Carrier) will switch positions. Once the enemy reaches close range brake formation and engage at will."

* * *

**Turian Dreadnought**

**Wings Glory**

**CIC**

The turians had arrived 250,000 kilometers from Shanxi just a minute after the UNSC had gotten into formation. Desolas was standing in the CIC of his dreadnought looking at the replaced galaxy map at the enemy's forces; he was amazed how a race so new could build ships that big and amass them that soon. What really held his attention were the _Spirit of Fire _and the _Zeus (the_ _Thermopylae-class Super Carrier)_. Both ships were bigger than the _Destiny Ascension _and the _Zeus _was about twice the size of the_ Spirit of Fire_. "They will become an excellent client race," he said to himself. He then noticed the huge space stations or that's what he thought they were, before he could say anything his comm.'s officer reported to him.

''General the unidentified race has sent a message in our own language to us, should I allow it over the comm.," said the comm.'s officer as he looked to the general for compliance.

Desolas was momentarily shocked that the message was in turian. He then remembered from Actuss's report that a frigate had been captured. The aliens must have been able to crack the computers and decipher their language. "They will make an excellent client race indeed," he said to himself. He then looked at the comm.'s officer and gave his answer.

''No! They are probably demanding our surrender,'' said Desolas. "Continue on and fire once we reach maximum weapons range."

* * *

**Spirit of Fire**

**Bridge**

After a minute it was obvious the Turians either didn't get the message or were just ignoring it. Cutter began giving out orders through his neural implant.

_(Making connection…connection acquired. Ready to receive message.)_

_All ships the enemy has not responded to our hails. Pick your targets and fire once they reach maximum weapons range. Launch all fighters and activate your point defense systems to shoot down enemy fighters and missiles._

_(Connection Terminated.)_

The entire fleet readied all their Sabres, Longswords, and Broadswords for launch. The groundside Sabres were then launched into orbit and the silos housing the surface to space missiles were prepped. The Cruisers and the _Spirit of Fire _took aim at the turian fleet, while the ODP's took aim at the Turian dreadnoughts and prepared to fire.

* * *

**Turian Dreadnought**

**Wings Glory**

**CIC**

Desolas's fleet had just reached 150,000 km from Shanxi when the sensors officer called out to him in alarm.

"Sir! Energy levels in the enemy fleet have skyrocketed. They are about to fire!"

"From this range? How can they get a positive lock and accurately hit a moving target, we still need to be at around 80,000 kilometers for optimal range." Desolas asked out loud.

"Enemy ships firing!"

A Turian frigate exploded on the holographic projector. Seven more frigates soon disappeared as well. Some of the rounds carried on after they destroyed their targets and destroyed two cruisers.

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED, Desolas shouted? No Mac gun can fire at this range."

"They obviously can sir, replied the sensors officer." We lost 8 Frigates and 2 Cruisers.

Desolas was cross but calm. He had underestimated this new race just like Actuss had. He couldn't afford to do that again.

"Accelerate all ships to full speed and focus kinetic barriers forward."

The fleet started to accommodate the general's orders. It all came to a halt when one of the UNSC's ODP's fired and tore right through the turian fleet destroying two cruisers and a dreadnought. The turians started to panic; they couldn't believe what was happening.

"NOW WHAT JUST HAPPENED," shouted Desolas.

''I think it was that space station, it fired a powerful tungsten round at incredible speeds,'' said the weapons officer. '' It fired at an impossible speed the computers couldn't keep up," Desolas could hear fear from the Turian as he spoke.

''SIR, three more dreadnoughts have been destroyed by the other stations,'' said the sensors officer.

Desolas was now very mad. The enemy had destroyed 16 of his ships before they had even entered weapons range. Eight frigates, four cruisers, and four dreadnoughts gone.

''Don't panic, I want half of the remaining frigates to target those stations, cripple them if they can, launch all fighters to target the enemies and get the remaining frigates to overwhelm and collapse the enemy's shields I'll take the cruisers and remaining dreadnoughts to finish the kill.''

* * *

**Space Battle**

The battle had begun. The Turian fleet began moving themselves into position as Desolas had ordered. As they did the OSA fleet (made up of only UNSC ships) managed to fire another Mac barrage followed by Ion blasts. Most rounds hit their mark, fifteen Turian frigates were completely destroyed as the rounds hit them, and other frigates were spared as the slugs just narrowly missed them. Nine cruisers were utterly destroyed as the UNSC ships focuses their rounds on them with the _Dauntless _and the _Spirit of Fire _destroying one each in a single shot.

Other Mac round shots had been focused on the dreadnoughts, but the ships Mac guns weren't as powerful as the ODP's, so while their shields were strained or the ships themselves damaged none were taken down in a single shot. Except for the _Zeus _whose Mac round actually managed to destroy a dreadnought in a single shot.

Then the Ion barrage followed, the fleet fired randomly into the Turians not selecting a specific target. Most of the Ion blasts failed to hit a target but five frigates and seven cruisers scored a direct hit. Each ship came alive with pulses of electronic waves, knocking out most of their systems and leaving them adrift in space.

As both fleets drew closer to one another the fighters met head on. The UNSC fighter force pared 200 Sabres, over 300 Longswords, and over 250 Broadswords against the turians 300 interceptors. The Broadswords stayed close to the carriers and frigates while the Sabres and Longsword engaged the turians. The UNSC Sabres and Longswords held the advantage of their larger size, their changeable weaponry and their AI astro-droids. The turians were surprised as they met head-on that their enemies had shields. Quickly realizing that their current weapons setting was just bouncing of the turian fighters all Sabres and Longswords changed their weapons to plasma. The Turians lost 40 fighters as the plasma passed through their kinetic barriers. They regrouped and paired up against the UNSC fighters.

The UNSC and turian ships now met face to face, and the battle became a free for all. As soon as the Turian Fleet had reached 80,000 km, their maximum weapons range, they open fired. The turian frigates fired at the UNSC cruisers but did their rounds were harmlessly absorbed by the shields. The turian Cruisers and Dreadnoughts fared somewhat better destroying four frigates and a destroyer. Most of the frigates used their increased maneuverability to avoid most of the fire and the destroyer's shields and armor held up. The UNSC fleet returned fire with their Archer-missiles, destroying one cruiser and three frigates. Fighters continued to fight in and out of the large vessels with Sabres, Longswords, Broadswords, and turian interceptors being destroyed. The ODP's came online again and opened fire on the Turians, destroying a dreadnought, two cruisers and three frigates; two of the frigates being destroyed after the Mac tore through its original target.

* * *

**Shanxi ****Orbit**

**Space Battle**

**Noble 5 and 6's Sabre**

Jarrod-B312 also known as Noble Six was the pilot for the Sabre that he and Jorge-052 were in. Jorge sat behind him acting as the Radar Intercept Officer (RIO). An asrto-droid R3-B4 was in the astro-droid compartment that was situated behind the cockpit, providing extra radar and logistics help for both the Spartans as well as making repairs.

"Six you might want to lose these three," shouted Jorge regarding their situation. Jarrod was one of the best fighter pilots the OSA had at their disposal. He was one of the first that took part in the Sabre program in its early days; he was more than capable of handling their current problem. Three Turian Interceptors were chasing their tail around the space battle, in and out of Turian and UNSC ships. Jarrod put the Sabre into a barrel roll to avoid the fire from the fighters. R3 gave a large shriek as it happened while the metal slugs from the Turian Interceptors bounced off the Sabre's shields around him.

"Don't worry you two we'll lose them," commented Jarrod as he put the Sabre into a low dive to avoid the wing of a Turian frigate. The Turian Interceptors just did the same. Jarrod then pulled a hard U-turn (known as a roll-off-the-top) causing the Sabre to go upwards and round, going in the opposite direction of the Interceptors. The Turians were slow to recognize this as the Sabre flew right over their Interceptors. Six pulled another turn making the Sabre go down and around (a Split S). Now they were on the Turian's tail.

Jarrod pulled the trigger that released tow Medusa missiles after targeting the innermost Interceptor. The Turian attempted to shake them but with the locking abilities it was useless. The Interceptor was destroyed as soon as the missiles caught up to it.

The two remaining Interceptors pulled a U-turn, now coming straight at the Sabre. They opened fire; Jarrod pulled another barrel roll and returned with plasma fire. R3 started to shriek again. "Easy little guy," shouted Jorge. Jarrod then fired more Medusa missiles.

One missile missed but the other made a successful hit on the Interceptor coming to their right, taking down its shield, near enough destroying it. Jarrod fired more Plasma bolts to finish it off, trying his best to keep the Sabre steady but also avoid the Turian's fire. As the Interceptor blew up Six had to pull a hard turn, putting the Sabre on its side so as to avoid a collision with the remaining Interceptor. R3 gave another shriek as the Turian Interceptor flew right beside (or in this case above) his dome head. The Interceptor did another U-turn; it was now back on their tail again.

Six was now getting annoyed; he decided to turn the Sabre upwards heading for the underside of a Turian cruiser. As he looked out the window he could see both Turian and UNSC crafts being destroyed by one another. It was obvious that the UNSC held the advantage in the battle between warships and the Turian Interceptors were becoming increasingly outnumbered. The Longswords were racking havoc on the Turian ships. Since the Human-Covenant War they had been rebuilt equipped with a full anti fighter and ship loadout, with two anti fighter missile pods instead of the normal one and an anti missile pulse laser meant for missile interception duties. The newly equipped M-67 Micro MAC's were doing some real damage as well.

In an age where the point defenses of warships were devastatingly effective, from the traditional 50mm CIWS whose range was several thousand miles to any human warship's point defense lasers that could hole a lightly armored fighter from thousands of miles away in seconds and would zap missiles out of the sky, coupled with ever more powerful shields nothing short of swarms of single ships would have any effect on any respectably armed human warship. Something the UNSC had learned during the early years of the Insurrection the hard way.

As a result the UNSC turned to the arming of "Micro MAC's" onto its fighters. This allowed UNSC fighters to engage at longer ranges and snipe the hardpoints of enemy ships, usually from multiple vectors at a time to overcome powerful barriers with a squadron to either destroy the vessel or damage its point defenses enough to allow the much more powerful anti shipping missiles a better chance to hit the enemy.

Although it didn't pack anything remotely like its larger cousin and the secondary railguns of UNSC ships in terms of firepower, a 140mm slug that weighed 80 kilograms traveling at 600 kilometers per second still would do tremendous damage against "softpoints" of enemy ships, 3.4 kilotons of TNT in kinetic energy on impact.

As they passed beside a UNSC frigate it suddenly exploded the shockwave shaking the Sabre a bit. Jarrod kept on his course however, both Jorge and R3 didn't like were this was going.

"Six what are you doing," Jorge asked.

"You've known me for over a century Jorge, you should know me by now," replied Jarrod hoping that would cool the both of them.

"Exactly my point," stated Jorge.

Jarrod didn't reply that time he needed to concentrate. If he timed this wrong they could end up dying or with the turian still on their tail. As they got closer to the belly of the cruiser R3 didn't like where this was going, he started to give concerned beeps. Jorge didn't either, "Six". He ignored them, not yet he thought.

As they got closer Jorge spoke again "Six!" (Not yet) he thought again. One final time Jorge spoke this time louder "SIX!"

He calculated this was the best moment to do it, turning the Sabre he put it into a roll-off-the-top. As the Sabre turned it was just meters away from the cruiser. The Interceptor was not so lucky, going as fast as it was it was unable to slow done or pull of a turn like that. The craft slammed into the cruiser's barriers taking down a small part of the cruisers kinetic shield.

Jarrod gave an expression of satisfaction. Though Jorge was impressed he still had to rebuke him. "Next time tell me when you're going to pull a stunt like that."

Jarrod just had to laugh.

* * *

**Space battle**

Despite the OSA's original success the turians were still pressing towards Shanxi. They had lost 63 out of their original 120 strong fleet. Over half of their numbers. Meanwhile, the UNSC had lost 6 out of their 45. While the turians still had the advantage in numbers the UNSC ships had the power to overcome them. The only problem was that the amount of fire that the turian ships were pumping out was starting to take its toll on the shields of the UNSC cruisers. Most were still holding, but this would become a problem if this battle dragged out. The UNSC's CIWS and Laser Cannons had kept most of the turians disruptor torpedoes at bay, but there were a lot of them. Two more frigates and a destroyer's shields had be weakened by a constant barrage of torpedoes and then destroyed by the mass accelerator rounds from the turian cruisers and dreadnoughts.

The ODP's were in danger as well. They had been severely upgraded since the war with the Covenant, and it was a good thing otherwise they all would have been destroyed by now. At the orders of Desolas, at the start of the battle 30 of the surviving 60 frigates had split off from the fleet under the command of Actuss and attacked the ODP's. Now over half of the frigates under Actuss and Desolas's command had been destroyed. The _Spirit of_ _Fire_, _Forward Unto Dawn_, and the two normal carriers were doing their best to lead their frigates to protect the ODP's, but they couldn't be everywhere. One ODP had already been destroyed by the turians constant fire of disrupter torpedoes and another's shields were almost gone.

Worse, the surviving turian frigates were close enough to Shanxi that they launched shuttles down to the planet.

* * *

**Shanxi**

******Shanxi Defense Force HQ**

******War room**

General Williams had been watching the whole battle on the holotank. It was going reasonably well. The turians numbers and their rapid fire abilities were the main problem. The UNSC could win this fight, but at a cost of many brave men and women. But Lasky's reinforcements could change that if Cutter called upon him.

But right now Williams had matters of his own to attend to. Basically the turian shuttles no doubt carrying troops that had just breached Shanxi's atmosphere. As he had predicted the shuttles were heading for the outskirts of the city, no doubt to attempt making a push inside.

"Are the city's defense up?"

"Yes sir, they are online and ready to fire," replied an officer.

"Good give the command to open fire and get the ground to space weapons to destroy those remaining turian frigates before they destroy another ODP.

When the UNSC started losing their colonies to the Covenant and after the war the UNSC security committee along with the UEG Colonial Development they started to setup a colony's defenses before settling them first. In the hundred plus years that followed the UNSC with the help of their allies used their new knowledge and technology to increase the colony defenses of not just UNSC colonies but all OSA races.

Outside the city limits at the Firebases near farm lands twenty missile silos came up from the ground and began targeting up in the sky. Each silo contained five missiles all launched into space at the un-expecting Turians. Mark 2 Onagers or Mass Drivers came online to fire as well.

* * *

**Shanxi**

**Space Battle **

**Turian Frigates**

Tonn Actuss had been demoted from commanding a cruiser to a frigate. He was in charge with commanding the thirty frigates assigned to destroy the enemy's orbital defenses to save the fleet and make room for the ground forces. Some had managed to get through, but not nearly enough.

Now almost all of his ships had been destroyed by the enemy and the stations themselves. He had had no idea that the stations possessed anti-ship weapons. They had managed to destroy one of the stations and were almost done with another. He knew there was a chance that he wouldn't succeed in destroying all the stations; he only hoped Desolas could finish his work. Just then the ODP that they had been firing at for what felt like forever stopped working from taking on too much damage.

"Keep it up men, we just need to cripple the last two and then we can head down to the planet to reinforce our soldiers and lay waste to the enemy. We can still do this," said Actuss.

The crew cheered at their success and their commanders words. Actuss was just about to give out orders to continue on to the next station until the surface to space missiles hit his remaining twelve frigates. All were either destroyed or crippled except for his.

Actuss was happy the spirits were on his side and had spared his ship from destruction. "Alright men we need..." Tonn Actuss never finished his sentence as a mass driver fired a fifty cm round tungsten with 2.5 gigajoules of kinetic energy right through the frigate and out the other end that caused an explosion taking his and crews life.

* * *

**Shanxi**

**Turian Shuttle**

Captain Cornelius Glaber sat in his shuttle with two combat teams of turian marines flying in the sky of the enemy's homeworld. There weren't nearly as many shuttles as he would have liked. The again he thought, with the way the battle was going it was a miracle any ship had been able to send any shuttles at all.

Their mission was to land at the outskirts of the planet's capital city, set up a base of operations, and then press into the city until it was captured. Cornelius like many turians came from a military family. He knew that currently they didn't have the numbers to capture the city. They would have to hold out and hope that Desolas could send reinforcements soon.

Cornelius looked out the viewscreen that showed the view outside the shuttle. They were currently approaching a forest and he could see the highlights of the city beyond it. He estimated it was about twenty clicks from the forest. As he continued to look he saw missiles rising into the sky heading to space, flashes of what must have been fire from planetary Mac guns followed in their wake. He was sure that his and the other shuttles could see the flashes of light in space when the missiles and Mac rounds struck the frigates they had but minutes ago left. Thirty seconds later the comm. in the pilots section at the front of the shuttle sounded off.

"All shuttles this is General Marcus Felix. As you may or may not have just saw all our frigates in orbit near this planet were just destroyed. I can't raise any of them. The enemy's capital city is just about 25 clicks out. We won't be able to depend on immediate reinforcements. We will just have to stand strong, hold out, and pray General Arterius will break through the enemy and send help. Felix out."

We're twenty-five clicks out people get ready," Cornelius called out as he saw his squad check and double check their gear.

All of a sudden missiles came out of nowhere heading towards the shuttles. Firebases near the farm lands on the outskirts of the capital city, the same ones that had destroyed the frigates in orbit moments ago, had spotted the turian shuttles coming on their radar. The stationary weapons platforms or Base Turrets immediately came online and open fired with their M202 XP Machine Guns and Rocket cylinders. The turian ground transports swerved to try to avoid the deadly fire, but the missiles seemed to be able to track them and a few shuttles went up in flames.

The comm.'s flared up again and General Felix shouted, "All shuttles land in those forest clearings it's too hot up here." Cornelius had to agree especially when the shuttle just ahead of his was destroyed by and Onager.

"Set the shuttle down pilot."

The shuttle landed and Cornelius and the two combat teams he was in command of quickly vacated the shuttle. Around them other squads and teams were exiting their shuttles. They were all gathered in a huge clearing in the middle of the forest they had been flying over.

"We're going to wait here with the shuttles till you set up a base and call us in," shouted one of the pilots before he shut the shuttle doors.

"Where is General Felix," asked Cornelius.

A sniper turned to him to answer. "General Felix is dead. His shuttle was the last one to be destroyed, along with five others."

Cornelius was shocked. "Who is the next is command?"

The soldier replied, "You are Captain sir."

Now Cornelius was really shocked. He was in charge of an entire invasion force. Well is wasn't really all that big of an invasion but still. They had launched from the frigates with about 350 men, now there were about 245 left. All of them under his command.

"Does anyone know where those weapons came from?"

"Based on the missiles distance trajectory I calculate that they came from somewhere just outside the forest about 5 clicks from here. Most likely from a base of some kind," replied an engineer.

"Then that's where we're going. We need to capture or destroy that base before more shuttles come. Everyone gear up and move out."

After five minutes the Company of Turians headed out into the forest, unaware that they were being watched.

_"Lucian's POV"_

In the forest watching the turians from afar was Lucian, the chief and alpha of all Lycans. With him were a group of his most trusted men that were known as the **Alpha Dogs**, the best fighting Company in Lucian's army.

The story of the Lycans was a sad one that did not need to be told. Many things had changed for the immortal species. They had a whole planet to themselves plus colonists or soldiers on several others. They had even been allowed to return to Earth. Although Lycans mostly kept to themselves they still kept up on galactic when Lucian heard about the events at Shanxi he immediately offered his support, and here he was. The Company of 150 Lycans were currently watching the turians depart their shuttles and move out into the forest.

"The enemy is at Company strength of 250 men heading straight for us," said Raze, Lucian's most trusted soldier and second in command, through the communicator.

"Copy that. We're going to launch a surprise blitz. Spread out and await my signal. Xavier take some men and take care of their shuttle pilots. If you're quick you might make it back in time for the action."

"Alright but fair warning, I'm not about to let you have all the fun dad."

Lucian could only smile and laugh at his son's words as the communicator cut out. His men had followed his orders and spread out amongst the trees. Once the turians were out of sight of their shuttles Lucian began to change.

He could feel the pain of the change. His muscles spamming and growing, his bones breaking and reforming, and his height increasing to name a few symptoms of the change. It had gotten easier the more often he transformed as the years went by.

Lucian's transformation was soon complete. When it was done he stood in his Super Lycan form standing at more than twice the size of a normal Lycan. Normally the change would have destroyed all his clothes, but thanks to the genius of Dr. Halsey all Lycans wore a specially created armor that was both strong and incredibly flexible. Able to stretch and grow through a Lycans transformation. Lucian gave the signal to attack in the form of a loud howl.

_"Cornelius's POV"_

Captain Cornelius and his men had been walking for about only five minutes at most. They had just lost sight of the shuttles when they heard a loud howl. Instantly the company stopped. That sounded like nothing Cornelius had ever heard before, and it was close by. The turians were so busy looking for the source of the howl that they weren't paying any attention to the ground.

Suddenly one, two, and then three turians disappeared below ground screaming as if they were grabbed. The left flank turned to fire at the ground but then several black blurs came out of nowhere an crashed them into the ground.

"SPREAD OUT," shouted Cornelius. His men attempted to follow his orders and succeeded to a degree. But they didn't get far before more of their attackers appeared and set upon them. Some came from between the trees running quickly on the ground; others came from the above jumping off tree branches.

Cornelius had managed to take cover behind a log. When he looked back he couldn't believe what he was seeing. His men were being ripped apart by what appeared to be giant canine creatures. Except they didn't look like anything he had ever seen. The closet thing he could compare them to were varren, but these creatures looked nothing like the famous pets and beasts of the Krogan. These creatures stood at about 6 ft at the smallest and 8 ft at the biggest. He also noticed a few whose height would tower over even an Elcor. They all had dark black fur with clearly visible large muscles, shouts full of sharp teeth, and were very strong as well as fast. They all appeared to be wearing armor. Cornelius witnessed one of his soldiers that had tried to get close with an Omi-Blade get his head ripped off from a swipe of one of the creatures paws. His men tried to fight back valiantly, but he could see it was futile. Any damage the creatures took they seemed to heal from.

"Fall back to the shuttles," called Cornelius. "RETREAT".

He didn't know if any had managed to follow him but Cornelius started running and didn't look back. He made it all the way back to the shuttles and pounded on one to be let in. When no answer came he opened the pilot's door to find the pilot dead with a huge bit wound. Cornelius checked all the other shuttles and found each pilot dead in the same way. He heard footsteps approaching and swerved around assault rifle poised to fire. The footsteps belonged to thirty turians that had managed to escape. Some of them were unharmed, others had minor to grieving wounds.

"Captain are you all right?"

"I'm alright but the pilots are dead. We're going to have to fly ourselves out of here."

"Or you could surrender," said another voice.

Cornelius turned around to look at the source of the voice. The voice came from a being that reminded Cornelius of an Asari. In fact it looked so much like an asari that with a few changes it could pass as one. He was also surprised that he could understand the alien. Then the alien raised its hand and snapped its fingers. The next thing Cornelius knew he and his men were surrounded by about ten of those canine creatures. He also saw more starting to appear from the direction of the fighting. That meant that all his men back there had been killed.

"Could this alien somehow control the beasts," he thought. If that was the case he knew he had no choice.

"Lay down your arms," said Cornelius to his men.

"Sir?"

"I SAID LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS," shouted Cornelius.

Slowly his men complied. More asari like beings came from out of the trees and took their weapons. Cornelius saw that they were wearing the same armor as the creatures and covered in blood.

"Good job boys I'm going to call for evac. You guys might want to change back.

Cornelius didn't know what the alien was talking about, but then before his eyes he saw all the canine creatures before him transform into asari looking aliens like the one before him. He thought the spirits were playing tricks on his eyes, but it was real.

Two minutes later Pelicans showed up to pick up the Lycans and their prisoners of war.

Xavier spotted his father and ran up to him. "I thought I said to save some for me."

Lucian just smiled and said, "I told you not to be slow."

* * *

**Turian Dreadnought**

**Wings Glory**

**CIC**

Desolas Arterius was not happy in the slightest. The destruction of Tonn Actuss and the frigates under his command meant that those space guns were still online and wrecking havoc on his fleet. Since the battle had started he had lost one-hundred ships; fifty-eight frigates, thirty-five cruisers, and seven dreadnoughts; most of the damage being done by the enemy's powerful Mac guns and the plasma in the missiles the enemy used.

The enemy had lost twenty ships, bringing their numbers down to twenty-five. But they still had most of their cruisers and those four huge dreadnoughts (referring to the two _Carriers_, the _Zeus_, and the _Spirit of Fire_). All of his fighter support had been destroyed and all contact with the few soldiers that had been able to land on the enemy's homeworld had been lost as well. Just then the two remaining ODP's fired again; with one destroying two cruisers and the other destroying two frigates and a dreadnought. Desolas knew that the decision he was about to make would most likely ruin his military career, but he had no choice.

''I can't believe me, General Desolas Arterius of the Turian Hierarchy defeated,'' he thought to himself.

"Order the fleet to retreat back through the relay," he said sounding like he could barley force himself to say those words.

"Sir, one of his officers looked to him questionably."

"YOU HEARD WHAT I SAID. The battle is lost, our ships are to damaged and won't be able to take much more punishment. We're out of disruptor torpedoes and have no reinforcements available. Order the retreat NOW."

'Yes sir!."

* * *

**Spirit of Fire**

**Bridge**

Admiral (or Captain as he liked to be called) Cutter was both happy and sad. He was happy with his fleet's performance battling a numerically superior force, and he was sad about the many men and women that had died. He had lost twenty of his forty-five ships; thirteen frigates, four destroyers, and three Halcyon MK.2-class light cruisers; some of the frigates were just crippled and disabled instead of destroyed.

The CIWS and Laser Cannons had done a good job of protecting their ships against the enemy missiles. At least at long to medium range, short range was harder. Luckily the turians seemed to be all out of missiles. Seventy-five percent of the enemy's force had been destroyed and General Williams had reported that all turians groundside had been captured or killed.

Serina's avatar then came up. "Admiral the enemy just gave the order to retreat."

Cutter smiled. "Did they now. Well me can't have that. You know the plan Serina."

"Of course I know the plan, I helped right it. The enemy is close enough to Shanxi to be completely vulnerable to an attack from the rear. I think we should call in Admiral Lasky."

"Agreed, send the message."

* * *

**Space Battle**

Desolas ordered his surviving ships to retreat back through the relay. Yet no more than thirty seconds after the order had been given forty-five slipspace portals appeared and out came _Infinity _and the other ships of Battlegroup Dakota and Tsunami. They appeared at the Turians rear and quickly surrounded them. The following battle was very short. _Infinity_ and company fired their Mac Cannons and Energy Projectors on the tuians rear destroying what little enemy resistance left.

One lone frigate managed to make an FTL jump back to the relay in the system, likely heading back to Turian space.

* * *

**Turian Dreadnought**

**Wings Glory**

**CIC**

Desolas was crawling around, blood flowing down his face. He was trying to get to the communications to send a message to the Hierarchy about this race and its capabilities. But he couldn't, he was to injured and had lost a lot of blood in the surprise attack. It was likely a useless gesture anyway, their communications were likely still blocked. He stopped and turned over looking at the inside of the CIC, he could hear his men who still clung to life coughing and spluttering.

"Sorry Saren, looks like I won't be there to share that bottle of brandy with you on Palaven." Desolas Arterious breathed his last breath then moved no more.

* * *

**Damaged Turian Frigate**

On board the Captain gave a sigh of relief, they had escaped with their lives. One of his officers walked up to him.

"Sir our engineers report that our systems are too badly damaged to travel all the way back to Turian space," he reported. The officer believed the captain wanted to head back and ask the Hierarchy for more reinforcements. The Captain however had other ideas.

"Will we be able to make it back to the Citadel" he asked. The officer was a bit confused by this question.

"Yes we should barely be able to but if we show up in this state…" the Captain cut him off.

"Good get us to the Citadel."

The officer protested, "but the Council will want to know how our ship got damaged and will find out about the attack."

The Captain wasn't having any of it. "The battle is lost and we were lucky to escape alive thank the spirits, we are returning to the Citadel to warn the Council of the biggest mistake we have ever made". The officer just walked off at that and the frigate entered the Mass Relay.

The Captain knew it would take about three days to reach the Citadel. He just hoped nothing happened in that length of time.

* * *

**UNSC INFINITY**

**CIC**

The battle was over; the Turian fleet had been decimated. All UNSC ships started to move into position beside disabled Turian vessels. They would be sending Spartans and boarding parties to capture the crew's. All surviving frigates started to search for escape pods.

Lasky was looking a a datapad reading the aftermath of the battle. Cutter had lost thirteen _Paris-class Heavy_ frigates, four _Gorgon-class Heavy_ destroyers, and three _Halcyon MK.2-class light cruisers_, although some of the frigates were only damaged or crippled. A total of twenty ships. It was more than Lasky would have liked and he wish that Cutter had called him sooner, but the plan had worked. Their fighter force had only suffered moderate damage. Most of the Spartans were grumpy that they didn't get to see much action though.

"Roland, have we heard from Lord Hood yet."

"Yes admiral, he said that we are to stick to the plan. Since _Infinity _didn't really fight till the end and is undamaged we are to head through the relay to the turian colony of Gothis. He's also sending the necessary ships to rebuild Battlegroup Dakota, since we lent most of it to Admiral Cutter. We'll also have Battlegroup Tsunami at our command since their relatively untouched. They'll come in as soon as me claim the system." All Spartan IV Fireteams have returned to _Infinity_.

"Good, we'll move out as soon as our new ships arrive.

* * *

**A/N: I'M BACK EVERYONE. And this chapter is finally finished. I;m really really sorry for the long wait. College has been demanding what with the end of the semester. But I'm back now and I'll do my best to not make you all wait so long next time.**

**So I hope you all like this chapter. I was going to add some parts with Spartans, but this chapter was already taking awhile. I might have rushed a few things let me know if you find any problems.**

**See you all later and I'll get started on the next chapter soon.**

* * *

****** CODEX ENTRY- ****New Class Modernization Program- UNSC**

**********NCMP: **_The New Class Modernization Program was started in 2578 as a standardization program to build new and better starships incorporated with the new standard technology. The UNSC came up with it and achieved these._

**********Golem-class Assault Destroyer: **_Based off the ancient Bothan Assault Cruiser the starship stands at 850 meters in length. It is armed with 2 Mac guns/Ion Cannons as its main armament; it is supported by 20 turbolasers, 24 Heavy double turbolaser cannons, 10 50mm point defense guns, and 20 Archer missile tubes. It is also the first destroyer with hangars __(two in fact)_ capable of housing four squadrons (48) starfighters. This ship is able to dish out much more close range punishment then it's Gorgon counterpart.**********  
**

**********Orin-class Battlecruiser: **_The step between a Gorgon-class Heavy Destroyer and a Marathon-class Heavy Cruiser is the Orion-class. At 900 meters in length it carriers more firepower than a destroyer. It boasts 2 Mac guns/Ion Cannons, 20 turbolasers, 10 50mm point defense guns, and the largest number of Archer missiles on any UNSC ship available. It is arguably as well armed as a Super Carrier. The huge number of Archer missiles means a lack of hangar room. Built to soak up damage while giving as good as it gets._**********  
**

**********************Phoenix-class Battleship:** _Based off the Phoenix-class Colony ship it is basically a fully upgraded version of the Spirit of Fire when it was first converted into a warship(only without the most bottom part). When the Spirit of Fire was first converted to a warship it only had light armor, an underpowered Mac gun, and the super-structure was vulnerable to light pulse laser fire. Now the new Spirit of Fire and the Phoenix-class Battleship is armed with a standard Mac gun, 22 Quad turbolaser cannons, 52 50mm point defense guns, 10 Mark 2500 Magnetic Accelerator Cannons (Mk.2 Onager), and 10 Archer missile tubes. Even with its firepower and armor durability, the Battleship is vulnerable to fighter swarms.  
_

**Mk. VI Orbital Defense Platform: **_The Mk. VI ODP is a cross betwenn a Mk.V ODP and a Golan Space Defense Platform; with the Mac gun built around an extra large Golan Space station instead of old ring like station surrounding a ODP. It's the newest most powerful ODP to date. It is capable of firing a 3,000 ton tungsten/depleted uranium projectile at point four-tenths, or 4%, the speed of light, around 12,000 kilometers per second. Impacting with a massive amount of kinetic energy, equal to approximately 5870 gigatons of TNT. Only the Didacts personal ship has been shown to survive the impact of these rounds. Against Covenant shield technology, the rounds possess enough kinetic energy to punch through shields, cut through the ship, and, upon exit, still retain enough energy to destroy a second ship, and cripple a third ship. The station is also built with shielding, a stronger hull, more precise targeting systems; the addition of 20 50mm point defense guns, 10 Rocket Turrets, 15 turbolasers, and __laser cannons for_ point-defense guns; and its very own station-based generator. Making the station self-containing. 


	7. Chapter 7: Retaliation part 1 - Gothis

**A/N: I'M BACK EVERYONE! **

**Here is Chapter 7. I hope you all enjoy it.**

**This chapter will be part one of a three-part arc, and will include the OSA's attack on the Turian colony Gothis. There will also be a little surprise included in this chapter. I guarantee nobody will see it coming. There will be some heavy character background included in this chapter.**

******Again I wish to thank JediSpectre177; some of this chapter is a template to JediSpectre177's fic HaloMass Effect: Ruptured Universe Chapter 5.**

**I would like to remind everyone that this is obviously an AU fic. So many things will be different and altered to fit my fic.**

**My poll on adding the Chiss to this story is still up. PLEASE VOTE!**

**I do not own Halo, Mass Effect, Star Wars, or any other franchise.**

* * *

**May 28, 2650/2157**

**Outside Turian Space**

**Battlegroup Dakota**

**Forward Unto Dawn**

Battlegroup Dakota had been traveling through slipspace from Shanxi for a whole day. They had left when the replacement ships arrived. The battle group was back to its full strength of 52 ships. The addition of the _Forward Unto Dawn _brought the battlegroup up to fifty-three ships strong. They could have gone through the Mass Relays before traveling through slipspace to cut time, but Lasky wanted to catch the turians by surprise. Since the turians couldn't detect slipspace travel until the UNSC arrived it guaranteed that the fleet would remain hidden. The UNSC Fleet had dropped out of slipspace just outside of the colony's sensor range; they didn't want the Turian fleet guarding the colony detecting them just yet.

Currently in the _Dawn's_ debriefing room were the UNSC's most famous Spartan team, Blue Team; lead by Master Chief Supreme Commander John-117. Blue Team had been transferred to the _Dawn _from Shanxi to participate in its defense along with other Spartan Fireteams, but besides leading the capture of a few crashed Turian frigates and there crews they didn't see much action. Currently they were discussing with the holographic image of Fleet Admiral Lasky and Spartan-IV Commander Palmer about the attack on the Turian colony.

Chief moved to beside the holo-table, "Cortana can you bring up the image of the system, please."

"Of course John," answered the AI.

The image was provided by a _Prowler _that had scouted out the system. Lasky then spoke up, "As you can see, there are minimal defenses in the system. The _Aladdin _detected a patrol group of five ships circling the system for possible intruders, while the Turian colony Gothis has a defense fleet of fifteen ships and planetary Mass Accelerator Cannons around the planet for orbital defense."

Fred-104 couldn't help but be spectacle. It all seemed too easy. "That's all? From what I've read about them in the codex this seems a bit light in regards to Turian standards."

William-043 (or Will as he preferred to be called) had to agree with Fred, "Fred's right, from what we know about this planet it's basically the Turian's version of Reach and its defenses are fifteen times this size."

Linda-058 was busy reloading her sniper rifle, but one couldn't help but hear that there was a bit of hope in her voice. "Well we are pretty deep inside Council Space as they call it, or Turian Space to be more precise. Maybe they think no one's insane enough to attack the peacekeeping military force of the Citadel Council."

"Well it's a good thing we're a lot crazier than most other species in the galaxy," said Will in his usual joking way.

John looked over at Will with a smile even if no one could see it. During the war John had thought that Will had lost his "special side" as his lifetime of combat hardened him, as it had with all the original Spartans. But during the many years of peace, he seemed to recover it, even holding on to it during the other wars and campaigns the last hundred years.

Samuel-034 (or Sam) scoffed at the notion, "We're not that crazy. OK we are I admit it."

"It doesn't really matter why they have such light defenses, at least it makes things easier on us," said John before anyone could say anything else.

As everyone took in what the Master Chief said, Admiral Lasky began to get the discussion back to the attack plan. "Chief's right, it makes things easier on us. Anyway let's get to the plan."

As he spoke Cortana caused the holo-image to zoom in on the Turian colony of Gothis. "Our first objective will be to take out the main fleet over the colony. The patrol fleet is currently on the far side of the system out of our range so they'll most likely be able to escape through the relay to get reinforcements. In that case we'll have to move quickly to take the colony. Missile strikes should destroy their groundside cannons. Once their taken care of we can then begin launching our troops and armor forces to take their bases while cutting off their radar and communications."

"Oh and don't worry about that patrol fleet, we'll be taking care of it," said a new voice.

All heads turned to the source of the voice, which turned out to be a hologram. The person in the hologram wore Mandalorian armor so he was obviously Mandalorian. John could see a mark on the warriors shoulder pad that he recognized. It was shaped like a** _jai'galaar_**, or a shriek-hawk, in mid-dive; the symbol of the Death Watch.

Even though the OSA had met the Mandalorians over 50 years ago it was still amazing how very human they looked. The first Mandalorians that the OSA meat were at first mistaken for humans because of their human appearance, like the Miraluka only with eyes. The biggest difference between humans and what are now known as Pure Mandalorians are their skin pigments. Pure Mandalorians have Caucasian skin with a green pigment mixed in. This came from the ancestors of the Mandalorians the **Taung's**, from which all Mandalorians evolved from. After the Mandalorian Wars species from all over the OSA were accepted into Mandalorian clans. First you had to pass some tests to prove your loyalty, and then you were injected with a special serum infused with Pure Mandalorian DNA. It wasn't widely known that a specially engineered virus containing nanite drones were mixed into serum. The drones searched the deepest caverns of your brain. If you truly wished to become a Mandalorian you would live and the serum would brand the clans mark on your body, turing that section Mandalorian green. If you didn't wish to join and were lying for some reason the drones would fry your brain, killing you instantly. Any species could become a Mandlorian if they were tough and proved themselves true. This Mandalorian was a Pureborn judging by his face which was green and Caucasian.

"I'm Major Jango Fett of the Death Watch. I've been sent here on the orders of Mandalore the Preserver to provide assistance. I have a small fleet at the polar opposite of your location. When you enter the system and engage the main fleet my ships will engage the patrol group. We'll then send forces to storm the capital city and its surrounding lands. Together we'll have Gothis under our control long before any reinforcements arrive.

"Major Jango Fett this is Fleet Admiral Lasky, I'll take any help I can get. Have your ships jump to hyperspace and set your coördinates for the turians patrol group. Move out on my mark."

"Copy that sir, over and out," said Jango as his hologram cut off.

"Roland take us to Gothis."

"Yes admiral." Laksy then used his neural implant to address the entire fleet. _  
_

_("Attention all hands, prep for slipspace launch.)_

* * *

**Turian Colony**

**Gothis**

**Turian Colonial Defense Fleet**

The captain of the fleet was extremely bored. Gothis was a colony in Turian space for training recruits in the Turian army and navy, named after an old colony lost in the Unification War. While it was an important colony to the Hierarchy, it was complete madness to think that anyone would be foolish enough to attack the colony, and by extension the Hierarchy itself. So he didn't get to see a lot of action. He'd heard a rumor that the Hierarchy was gathering a fleet of ships to subdue a new race that attempted to reactivate a dormant Mass Relay, which of course was against Council law. He laughed at the idea of how the mighty Turian fleet was probably crushing the new species.

The sensors officer then interrupted his train of thought upon seeing a strange anomaly. "Captain I'm detecting spatial ruptures ahead of us!"

The captain looked out the view-screen and saw what looked like worm holes, too many and to unnatural to be natural. Before the captain could give a response a fleet of unidentified ships exited the worm holes lead by a 5.6 kilometer long monstrosity that appeared out of the largest. The only thing that came to mind in the captain's head was that they were under attack! He moved into action by screaming out orders. "Get our weapons online and kinetic barriers up! Warn the Generals on the planet we are under..." Before he could finish his last order, the alien fleet had open fired. The turians never had a chance. The _Infinity _took out most of the ships with its four Mac guns and its Energy Projector. The rest were finished off by a few Mac rounds from the rest of the fleet.

The captain's last thought before he died was that hopefully the patrol fleet could escape and warn the Hierarchy about this attack.

* * *

**Turian Colony**

**Gothis**

**Death Watch Fleet**

After Battlegroup Dakota entered slipspace Jango ordered his fleet to jump to hyperspace. It was a relatively short jump. When they exited FTL they came out almost right on top of the Turian Patrol Fleet. If you could call five ships a fleet. Jango was currently in command of 10 _Mandalorian Cruisers_, 5 _Keldabe__-class battleships_, 3 _Kyramud__-type battleships_, and 2 _Mandalorian Carriers_. As soon as they exited hyperspace the battleships open fired with their Ion Cannons and then followed up with their turbolasers and heavy concussion missiles.

The results were instantaneous. Once the first four ships were immobilized by the Ion Cannons the combined turbolaser fire either destroyed or crippled the vessels. Those that weren't out right destroyed had their hull shattered by the heavy kinetic power of the concussion missiles. The Turians never even got the chance to fire. Only one ship survived the onslaught and decided to get the hell out of Dodge. Its shields had collapsed due to the concussion missiles; just narrowly avoided being damaged to bad by the turbolasers and escaped through the relay.

* * *

**Mandalorian Cruiser "_Battle Cry"_**

**Main Bridge**

Jango Fett was very pleased with his fleet's dealing with the turian patrol group.

"Sir one ship in the Turian patrol group managed to escape," said the sensors officer.

The sensors officer thought Jango would be furious, but he just smiled. "Good, now they can warn the Hierarchy about those they tried to subdue. Let them come and we will show them just who it is they're messing with!" Move all ships towards the northern pole of the planet and prepare to launch our Basilisk war droids at the capital.

* * *

**Turian Colony**

**Gothis**

**UNSC INFINITY**

"The main colony fleet has been destroyed Admiral Lasky."

"Thank you Roland. Open a communications line with the colony I've got something to say."

"Yes sir." Roland then activated the comm. system as Lasky stepped in front of the projector.

"This is Admiral Thomas Lasky of the Orion Systems Alliance to all Turians on the colony of Gothis. Yesterday your Hierarchy attacked one of our planets hoping to subdue us and take our technology. We defeated them and now we're here for retribution, power down all your weapons and surrender. Do so and none of you shall be harmed, failure to do so and any attack on our vessels will result in hostile action and I will not be able to assure your safety."

Lasky's message was quickly answered when he saw a mass accelerator round come from the colony, impacting one of his frigates. The ship didn't blow but its shields were now almost gone.

Lasky then turned to the weapons officer. "I want a missile strike on that cannon. Tell all ships to proceed as planned."

* * *

**Turian Colony**

**Gothis**

**Ground to Orbit, Mass Accelerator cannon facility.**

When the warning had come in that they were under attack every Turian on Gothis began preparing for invasion. Pilots were scrambling to their interceptors, the MA canons were prepped and defenses were being set up at important locations.

At one of the MA canon facilities a general was listening to the message sent by Admiral Lasky. Blinded by rage and fury that the Hierarchy had lost and that they were being demanded to surrender, he made a rash decision that he wouldn't live to regret.

"Target one of those ships and fire the cannon," he ordered.

The facility began to shake as the cannon fired a round at one of the alien ships, a UNSC frigate to be exact. The General watched as the round impacted the vessel on the holo- projector. He was dumbfounded when the ship remained standing. Though it looked like its shields were down, any other ship that size would have been torn to shreds.

"Get the cannon up again, fire another round," he ordered. As the men moved to do as they were told there was a loud, thunderous sound followed by violent shaking of the facility. That shaking was not done by the canon. The facility had been hit by a missile strike from the _Infinity _causing it to be destroyed and everyone inside to die.

Around Gothis the UNSC tore a great path of destruction. From orbit their ships fired their Mac rounds and missiles, destroying radar towers and communications buildings putting the Turians in the dark groundside. While the UNSC ships took care of communications, the Mandalorian vessels took care of any planetary guns and anti-ship turrets groundside, using their turbolasers to fire at them from orbit. The turbolasers had a small-scale glassing effect on the areas hit by them. Setting the land on fire and turning the ground to lava.

* * *

**Gothis**

**Turian Airfields**

At one of Gothis's many airfields turian pilots were scampering around trying to get to their fighters and interceptors. They had received the call five minutes ago that told them Gothis was under attack. Though they were going as fast as they can, they were forced to double time it when the flash of what appeared to be green lasers appeared over the hills on the landscape; flying down on the planetary gun that lay on the opposite side of the hills.

As they started running to their now prepped aircrafts, the AA guns of the airfield opened fired on an alone enemy aircraft. To the Turians it was a completely alien design. To humanity however its appearance and design was similar to their late twentieth century military plane the F-22 Raptor, but with a more modern futuristic design, and it was red and white. The aircraft however was nothing like the OSA or UNSC currently used, it was the only one of its kind. That would be true if it was anything but just a vehicle.

The ship performed evasive maneuvers by doing several barrel rolls to the left and right, dodging the majority of AA fire. On each wing a flap opened up, revealing two missile launchers. The aircraft returned fire releasing a spray of projectiles on the Turian pilots and auto-targeting the AA guns. The AA guns went up in flame and smoke as the missiles destroyed them. Next the Turians were in for a surprise as the aircraft descended low towards the airfield, heading straight for the Interceptors and Fighters.

Its wings started to part from the main body and began turning in on themselves, splitting in two again. The aircraft slowed as it got close to the fighters. Then from the wings a pair of robotic legs sprouted, followed by a pair of arms. The whole thing was changing, its parts moving, transforming. Then the now humanoid robotic machine spoke.

"Whoa stick the landing," it said as its feet landed, skidding into several fighters and interceptors destroying them in the process.

"Behold the glory of Jetfire turians," said the robot as it grabbed an interceptor and threw it at a couple of fighters. A sword then formed from his back which he quickly grabbed and swung at the Turian aircrafts. A pair of rocket launchers formed on his right wrist as he open fired while swinging his axe and sword. The Turians returned fire but their weapons were ineffective against him.

"Jetfire are you done yet, we've still got other airfields to take care of," said a voice over his com.

"All right hold you're Energon Silverbolt, I have a couple more to destroy," he responded while taking out a few more fighters and interceptors with swings from his sword and missile fire.

The Turians continued to fire on him as he transformed back into vehicle mod. He launched several missiles destroying the last of the Turian's aircrafts. Engaging his thrusters he shot off at high speeds, leaving the Turians of the airfield dumbfounded as to what to do since all their aircrafts had been destroyed.

At another airfield elsewhere on Gothis a group of fifteen Turian gunships had been successfully launched just before the airfield was destroyed by a UNSC cruiser. Seeking vengeance for their fallen comrades and driven by rage the gunships flew up and opened fire on the cruiser.

Instead of returning fire (the fire from the gunships made no difference anyway) the cruiser opened up one of its hangar bays. Inside preparing to launch were Ikran Maktos (Aka: Ikran riders or warriors). Na'vi warriors who rode on the back of the large, bird-like aerial predators called Ikrans (Once referred by the RDA as Banshees; now called by the Na'vi name to avoid confusion with the Covenant vehicle) that were native to the Na'vi homeworld of Pandora.

Due to the atmospheric properties of their homeworld, like Unggoy the Na'vi and Ikrans had to wear special breathing equipment. Though they continued to wear primitive clothing on their colonies and homeworld, Na'vi warriors and soldiers that fought in the OSA military wore body armor similar to that of human soldiers. Ikran riders were given a special type of gun that gave them the same firepower as Hornets and Banshees.

Once they were given the signal to launch the lead rider complied and flew out the hangar bay followed by twenty-nine other riders. Believing the Ikrans to be simple slow-moving fighters, the gunships changed course headed straight for the Ikran Maktos. The pilots attempted to fire missiles at the Ikran wave but found they were unable to auto-target the beasts. They soon found out why.

Ikran riders open fired on the Turian gunships, the plasma from the guns passing right through the shields melting the metal. Despite them requiring both their hands to work the gun the Na'vi were still able to control their Ikrans through their neural queue which on Na'vi appeared like braided human hair.

The Turians were totally caught off guard when it turned out they were engaging animals and not vehicles. The lead Gunship was attacked by the leading rider, the force of the beast slamming and clutching on caused the gunship to spin out of control; the other gunships had to perform evasive maneuvers in order to avoid it.

The Turian pilot tried desperately to regain control of the aircraft. However the rider acted fast by firing into the cockpit, shattering the glass and killing the pilot. With the pilot died the Rider and his mount let go of the gunship leaving it to spirally descend to the scorched earth.

The gunships that had no Ikran Maktos clinging to them engaged the flying war beasts. This turned out to be a useless gesture as the Ikran were equipped with their own shield that was integrated with their breathing equipment, which formed something like an invisible, protective bubble around the animal and its rider.

The Ikran Maktos were able to take down six gunships before they were joined by a Phantom and ten Banshees. The nine remaining gunships tried their best against them but to no avail.

With the combined might of the Ikran tearing pilots from their cockpits, the Banshee plasma fire burning through the gunships armor without any regards to its shields, and the firepower from the Phantom, the Turians didn't stand a chance.

* * *

**Gothis**

**Lower orbit**

**Forward Unto Dawn**

**Hanger**

In the hangar of the _Dawn _Jedi Master Rada Vadam was currently preparing himself for meeting with his fellow Jedi Knights that had been brought along for the attack. They had set up a small landing area so they could gather their equipment. The Dawn however would not be landing at their location.

Rada strapped an Antigravity Pack (Sometimes called a Sangheili jetpack) to his back and had a quick check to make sure his armor was firmly on. He double checked to make sure his weapons were title fastened, he didn't want them falling off with what he was about to do.

Cortana's voice came over the intercom as Master Chief approached him.

"ETA three minutes before we reach your destination Rada."

Rada looked up as if she was directly looking down at him, "Thank you Cortana."

Chief and Rada then looked out of the hanger at the landscape before them. The _Dawn_ was currently passing over an area that had been blasted by turbo lasers five minutes ago. They were captivated by the destructive scene.

"Sigh," it reminds me of glassing. It has been so long since I last saw one. I know we only use turbolasers in this way as a last resort, but I always thought we'd never have to use them like this again," commented Rada the clear sign of sorrow in his voice.

Chief could understand how he felt. Not since the First Galactic War had Glassing been used, and not since then had turbolasers been use in this manner. The only time glassing had been used over the past decades was for the extermination of flood colonies. But those were very rare.

"We gave them the chance to surrender; we warned them what we would do. They choose to fight. At least there's no civilians to risk killing," said John.

"Hmm yeah, you're right. Anyway what did you want?"

"I was about to tell you our ETA but Cortana beat me. Looks like you're all ready to go."

"Yep I just better time the jump right or goodness knows where I'll land. Where are you lot going by the way."

"Once we drop you off I'll be leading Blue Team to some research stations and other facilities to gather any information we can."

They just stood there talking for three minutes until Cortana interrupted them as the _Dawn _started to fly over a forest.

"We're nearly over them; better get ready to jump Rada."

"Sorry I'd better head now, see you both later."

Rada walked to the edge of the Hanger. He turned round to face them, crossed his arms and fell out the hanger backwards. Failing at ten miles an hour, Rada's world was currently upside down as he plummeted to the ground below. Looking down at the forest (or in this case up) he could see the clearing were several Pelicans and Falcon's had landed and the Jedi forces were gathering. Twirling around so he was going into an actual dive he activated his Antigravity pack, slowing his descent. As he got closer to the ground he brought himself upright so his feet would land first and not his face. Around him were about two dozen Jedi knights, all of them he knew by name and the majority he had even trained.

Except for a few species there were Jedi Knights from all the OSA races, even the Unggoy had some of their species as Jedi. Rada couldn't help but chuckle when he noticed a Unggoy talking with a Jiralhanae. Despite all they were known for, the Unggoy Jedi Knights were not to be trifled with. He thought back to a dark time in OSA history, back when it was the Covenant, the Unggoy rebellions. The Covenant back then would have had a different view of the Unggoy if they had Jedi.

Before he moved out he sensed a familiar presence coming to him. Looking around he saw a cloaked figure, wearing a red and black mask of Mandalorian design walking towards him. The clothing or armor the person wore was similar to that of the ancient Japanese Samurai. Rada smiled, even though he couldn't see the man's face he knew exactly who it was.

"Nice to see you again Master Vadam."

"Revan, my old padawan. It's nice to see you to."

"Nice entrance you did there by the way."

"Well John and the rest of them had other places to be. I can image they'll be doing a similar entrance although with more leaving a crater in the ground," Rada laughed. "Anyway what's been going on?"

"We land only a few minutes ago, we're just making sure we have enough medkits."

"Where is the _Ebon'Hawk_," Rada asked.

"Left it on-board the Shadow of Intent under care of T3-M4," Replied Revan.

"What about the others."

"They went to Shanxi to help with the clean-up and interrogations, they'll catch a ride here when Battlegroup Tsunami arrives".

"Right get everyone ready we're about to move out," ordered Rada.

As Revan walked away to carry out his orders, Rada couldn't help but think about his old apprentice and how proud he was to know him. Revan was the most powerful Jedi in the whole order. Kreia, one of his masters before she died had said, "_Revan was power. It was like staring into the heart of the Force._" Rada had felt the same way. Revan had many teachers and he counted himself lucky to be among them. His old padawan was also a mechanical genius, charismatic, master military tactician, intelligent, decisive, loyal, compassionate, and a skilled pilot. A very talented person. He was also one of the Jedi's greatest swordsman; he also was a master at hand-to-hand fighting as well as firearms. The mask Revan wore was from a Mandalorian women and it held a great deal of symbolical and emotional meaning to Revan. But those were thoughts for another time.

Yes he could honestly say that he was proud to know the young Jedi.

* * *

**Gothis**

**Gothis Capital City**

Hell. That was the shortest word to describe the situation in the capital city of Gothis. After gaining orbital superiority over the northern quadrant of Gothis, the Mandalorians started to destroy any planetary guns and anti-ship turrets around the capital city. Once that was done swarms and swarms of Basilisk War Droids launched from their Carriers towards the city. When the droids and the riders on their backs had the city in their sites, they immediately open fired with their shockwave generator rods, laser cannons, and pulse-wave cannons of the turians defensive positions.

That was thirty minutes ago. Since then the rain of destruction had increased ten fold. The cannons on the Basilisks rained complete havoc on the turians fortified positions while their riders took puck shots from their mounts. The lasers blasted the turians completely ignoring their kinetic barriers. Some Basilisks had used their powerful clawed front legs to stick to buildings so they could strike the enemy from far above. Snipers tried to take shots at the Mandalorian riders, only for their shots to get absorbed by the shields of the Basilisk. Then the snipers were usually vaporized via a returning pulse-wave cannon blast.

While the turians weapons had relatively no effect on the War Droids, some were taken out by a combination of the turians Mako tanks and rocket launchers. The turians roared with new-found hope that their enemy was not invincible. Their hope was soon "picked up and choked to death" so to speak. The Basilisks had destroyed all anti-air turrets in half the city. This allowed the **_Kom'rk_-class fighter/transports **to fly in unopposed. Hovering 15 ft above the ground hatches on the ventral surface of the ships opened up revealing a troop bay. Twenty-four Death Watch flyers launched from each ship, equipped with jetpacks similar to those found on Spartan armor. The new troops used their flight speed, WESTAR-35 blaster pistols, wrist rocket launchers, and wrist flamethrowers to launch quick and extremely deadly fast raids on exposed turian soldiers; while the Basilisks focused on the Mako's.

* * *

**Gothis Capital City**

**Death Watch HQ**

Major Jango Fett was currently in the middle of the set up HQ wearing his Shock Trooper Armor. His forces had managed to capture half of the city in two hours. The tuians had solidified the other half of the city and were holding tight. He could just send in some Basilisk War Droids to try to destroy their front line defenses; but scouts had reported that turian tanks called "Mako's" were waiting to blast them out of the sky with a barrage of cannon fire. That usually meant that he would have to send in his men on the ground, which would give the turians the even ground, maybe even the advantage due to having fortified positions. But he could work around that. Anyone who knew Jango knew that he had been in much tougher spots than this.

_Character Background Begin_

Jango Fett was a Mandalorian born on **Concord Dawn**, an agricultural world in the Mandalore Sector. Born to a family of farmers, Jango grew up alongside his parents and his older sister Arla. His father served as a Journeyman Protector, a civilian lawman on Concord Dawn. Soon after Canderous Ordo became the new Mandalore after the Mandalorian War, Jango learned the hard way that not all Mandalorians agreed with the ways of their new leader. A civil war broke out between those who followed Canderous (the True Mandalorians) and a splinter group that called themselves the Death Watch.

When Jango was eight years old his father offered some True Mandalorian soldiers, led by Jaster Mereel, refuge on his farm after a lost battle with the Death Watch. The Death Watch caught up with the True Mandalorians at the homestead and their leader Tor Vizsla captured Jango, using him in an attempt to root Jaster and his men out of hiding. Vizsla savagely beat Jango's father in front of him while he demanded the location of Jaster and his men, even going so far as threatening to shoot him in the head right in front of his son. However, Jango's mother intervened, shooting one of the Death Watch in the face with a blaster rifle and in the ensuing chaos, his father ordered him to run. Fleeing into the nearby crop field, Jango was rescued by Jaster and his soldiers while his parents were murdered and his sister taken by the Death Watch.

With his family dead and his home in ruins, Jango joined the True Mandalorians as they regrouped in a nearby town in order to stage an ambush on the Death Watch. Believing their enemies dead, Vizsla and his men moved into the town on a celebratory raid, only to come under fire from the True Mandalorians, attacking from street alleys and high windows. Using the firefight as a distraction, Jango planted an explosive charge beneath the Death Watch's armored tank, destroying it. He was attacked moments later by the Death Watch soldier responsible for the deaths of his parents and although the rogue Mandalorian slashed him with his gauntlet's vibroblade, Jango was able to snatch up a blaster, shoot and kill his parents' murderer. Having proven himself in Jaster's eyes, after the fighting was over he was taken in by Jaster, who raised him as he was his own son.

Up into his teenage years Jango served with Jaster and his forces against the Death Watch. Rising to the rank of Commander. During a battle on Korda 6, a trap was sprung by the Death Watch. The result: Jaster's second-in-command Monstross betrayed Jaster and left him to die at the hands of Tor Vizsla, Monstross tried to take over saying that Jango had died trying to save Jaster; but Jango appeared and revealed to truth. Monstross was killed and Jango donned Jaster's armor, and took over command.

Some time later Death Watch set another trap on Galidraan. Vizsla made a deal with the corrupt governor to fund Death Watch's rebuilding; as well as, send a distress signal Jango and his men, telling him that Death Watch was attacking. In exchange Vizla would assassinate all the governor's political protesters. Jango and a company of his men arrived as planned. The governor then sent a message to Coruscant saying that Mandalorians were killing "political activists", along with women and children—with Vizsla's own forces providing the body count of innocents—and begging the Jedi Council to step in and put a stop to them.

When the Jedi arrived Jango thought that they would believe he and his men were responsible for Vizsla's actions. But he was pleasantly surprised when Jedi Master Dooku asked him where the Death Watch were. Seeing that his plan was foiled Vizsla was forced to retreat, after he killed the governor. However six Jedi, including Dooku's apprentice Kimari Vosa, were convinced that Jango and his men were the culprits and attacked, killing twenty-one of Jango's men, including his second-in-command Myles. It was then that Jango would carry out the act that would make him both famous and infamous for the rest of his life and career: using no weapon beyond his own hands he vengefully killed the six Jedi, including Kimari Vosa.

Two years later, Jango finally tracked down Vizsla over Corellia, fought him and then killed him. The Mandalorian Civil War was finally over. After the war Jango became lost with no purpose. When Canderous offered him to lead a new Death Watch he was putting together Jango refused. He spent the next few years as a bounty hunter, quickly becoming one of the best. Canderous tracked him down eventually and made him another offer; a place in the Mandalorian Grand Army and to be a template for an army of clones, saying that Jango was a true Mandalorian and that their was no one else he would trust more for the job. What really sold Jango was that Canderous told him that his sister Arla Fett had been found alive. She had been abducted by Death Watch and then eventually joined their ranks as an assassin. She was arrested ten years ago, deemed mentally unstable and was ordered to be held in the Valorum Center—a mental institution on Coruscant. If Jango joined up he'd get her transferred to a facility on Mandalore. Jango agreed, but also on the condition that an unaltered clone be given to him.

And so that was his story. Jango named the clone Boba Fett and he was raising him like a son. He also viewed Boba as someone to carry on Jaster's legacy. Jango assisted in the design of the armor worn by the clones in the Clone-Joint Species Army. He was also responsible for hand picking their instructors (besides himself) and personally oversaw the training of the **Alpha-class Advanced Recon** Commandos(ARC Troopers), considered the most skilled and élite soldiers in the Clone-Joint Species Army.

_Character Background End_

Jango watched as the _Meteor-class Q-Carriers _started to land in the makeshift LZ. The Neo-Crusaders inside started to disembark. If he sent them in on foot they'd be much more vulnerable to the turians Makos. Flyers could cause some havoc on the turian troopers, but they would have trouble taking out the tanks without specialized gear. All and all the enemy was to well positioned and he would need a distraction. As a new image appeared on the holo-tank Jango got an idea.

A _Phoenix-class Battleship _had appeared on the horizon from the south. Behind their position. The turians couldn't see it, but Jango and his soldiers could. Using the rangefinder equipped into his helmet Jango saw that the ship was named the _Dragon's Fire_. Looking up the ship, on a datapad that listed all the ships taking part in this invasion, showed that its was carrying two **Manta-Stealth Sub/Frigates**. He didn't know who was in the Manta's, but maybe he just found his game changer.

* * *

**UNSC Phoenix-class Battleship - Dragon's Fire**

**Hangar**

******Manta-Stealth Sub/Frigate#1**

When the OSA was formed all races shared and compared history. Not just military and the typical type of history, but media history as well. Anime, cartoons, and old TV shows from the 21st Century on Earth became a huge hit. Their success increased with almost every race that joined the OSA since then. The old super hero shows based off the ancient Marvel and DC comic books were some of the most successful. Some companies and military's tried to replicate some of the ideas and materials from the shows.

The Manta-Stealth Sub/Frigate was created by the Mon Calamari. It was inspired and based off the Manta-Sub that served as Black Manta's mobile base in the old **Young Justice **cartoon. Like in the show the vessel is capable of acting as a mobile base, it also possesses a large docking bay for Manta-Flyers and Manta-sub attack crafts. Unlike in the show the craft is capable of traveling in space as well as water. It's main purpose is that of a mobile stealth base. It was also partly inspired by the joint Gungan/UNSC project that created the **_Mantaris_-class amphibious medium transport**.

Currently standing in the docking bay was a human about 6 ft 10.0 in with brown hair and blue eyes. He was Captain Carter-A259, leader of the second most famous Spartan team of all time, Noble Team. While he and all of Noble Team wore MJOLNIR armor, everyone on the team except for Jorge-052 were Spartan-III's. Like some other Spartans that served in the Human-Covenant War Carter tried to leave military life and live as a civilian. Predictably, it didn't work out. Currently Carter and the rest of Noble Team were waiting for the Manta to leave the battleships hangar so they could get underway.

Their wishes were soon granted as the stealth ships A.I came to life broadcasting a message to the whole crew.

_Attention all hands, prep for launch. Repeat prep for take off._

"All right Noble here we go", said Carter. Beside him he could see his team mates Catherine-B320 (commonly known as Kat), Emile-A239, Jorge-052, Jun-A266, and Jarrod-B312 ready for action._  
_

The Manta shifted a little as it powered up and lifted off the battleships hangar floor. It flew out of the hangar quickly followed by another close behind it. The captain of the Manta called Carter telling him to bring his team to the bridge. When they arrived the captain was conversing with a hologram of a Mandalorian.

"Captain Carter. Noble Team. I'm Major Jango Fett of the Death Watch. I'm pleased to see you Spartans. My situation has turned sour, my forces have captured half of the capital but the turians are set in real good in the other half. They've got a whole tank column waiting to blow my men out of existence if I charge by foot and rockets to shoot my men down by air. I'm looking at a stalemate that can only be broken by sacrificing a lot of my men. And the longer I wait the more likely they'll attack first. I could use your help Captain."

"We're ready to help in anyway we can Major. We also have another Manta carrying a Clone Commando Squad. They can help as well," replied Carter.

"Excellent. It just so happens that I do have a secondary target. If they're as good as they're supposed to be it shouldn't be a problem. I'm uploading the mission parameters to you now."

"Received, we'll get right on it."

"Good, Jango out." His hologram cut off.

Emile spoke up. "Sounds like we've got work to do. Taking out a whole column of tanks with half a city between us and them. Sounds like a noble mission to me."

"Well have to avoid attention until we have the tanks in our sights," said Kat.

"We'll make it happen. Head to the armory," replied Carter.

They walked down two corridors to the armory to gear up. Brass had advised them to deck themselves out with weapons that would give them an advantage. In the armory where weapons of UNSC, Covenant, Mon Cala,etc origin. It even contained weapons that had been created after the fallout on Far Isle. Most wastelanders no longer used their old weapons after being equipped with the latest OSA technology, preferring to either sell their weapons to museums, private collectors, or keep them for memories sake. But some weapons were recreated and grafted into the UNSC's and OSA's arsenal. All fallout weapons that were recreated were now classified as the F7-series.

Carter equipped himself with his trademark M395 Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) and a DC-15S blaster carbine.

Kat chose an M6H Pistol, a Z-110 Directed Energy Pistol/Exotic or the Boltshot as a backup, and a DC-15S blaster carbine.

Jun chose a F7 Gauss rifle and a DC-17 repeater hand blaster.

Jorge was going with his trademark modified M247H Heavy Machine Gun and a Z-6 rotary blaster cannon, which was basically a smaller blaster chaingun, as a backup.

Emile armed himself with a M45D Shotgun, a M319 Individual Grenade Launcher, and his signature KuKri knife.

Jarrod picked out a DC-17 hand blaster, a Z-250 Directed Energy Engagement Weapon or Lightrifle, and a F7 Tesla Cannon.

Once they all had their weapons Nobel Team headed back to the docking bay to board a Manta Flyer. The ship's A.I 's voice was again sounded off on the ship's intercom.

_"All hands prepare to dive."_

That was their cue to board the flyer. An underwater missiles platform was attached to the flyer so it hall it through the water. The familiar splash was heard signaling that the Manta had entered sub mode and was underwater. In the flyers small command center Jun noticed a package. The captain of the Manta then appeared on the hologram projector.

"Noble Team in this package is a H-295 Target Designator. Your mission is to reach the turian tank column and designate the target for the missile platform **(1)**. Try not to draw too much attention to yourselves while you're at it."

"Understood sir," said Carter.

When the captain's hologram disappeared Noble got ready to move out. The flyer dropped the missile platform leaving it in the care of a squad of Mon Calamari soldiers. Scanners indicated that there was a small squad of turians near Nobles drop of point.

"Six you take out that squad, quietly," said Carter.

Six just nodded to show he heard.

The Manta Flyer breached the surface just enough for the back door to open. Six was the first out and quickly located the turian squad on his HUD. They were just around the corner.

Immediately Six activated his armor's active camouflage rendering him invisible to the naked eye. Quickly and silently Jarrod used his mastery in stealth to position himself right behind the unsuspecting turians. They were to busy talking on their comms. Six immediately tapped in to listen. Thanks to the translator he could understand what the turians were saying.

_"The enemy has stopped advancing. Our Mako line seems to be keeping them at bay. That's good for us. It gives us time to complete gathering our forces and launch a counter attack. Gunships are being prepped as we speak. As soon as they're ready we attack and take back our city. Get to the front lines. We march with the Mako's once the gunships begin their attack. These upstarts will not defeat the Hierarchy! We will claim and hold this city until Palaven can send reinforcements."_

Six immediately relayed what he just heard to his teammates, their wasn't much time. The turian squad was about to move out, their backs still turned to him. Six unhooked the Tesla cannon from his back and charged the heavy weapon. Once at full power the powerful electric energy inside the cannon flew towards the enemy squad, and impacted with very satisfying results. The blast impacted in the center of the group, the electrical energy engulfing the whole squad instantly killing two and dealing massive shocks to the other four. Two more died from the electricity's lingering effect. The bodies of the other two turians were charred and smoky, but they were alive. This quickly changed when Six put a bullet in their heads, their kinetic barriers having been totally destroyed.

Carter and the rest of Noble caught up with Six.

"Nice job Six. Let's get a move on Noble we don't have much time," said Carter.

"I hope those Commandos a worth something. Who are they anyway," said Emile.

Kat answered, "You should know them. It's **Delta Squad**."

* * *

**Gothis Capital City Outskirts**

**Main Air Base**

Delta Squad had just been dropped off by their own Manta Flyer from their Manta Sub/Frigate. They were an élite Clone Commando Squad of the Clone-Joint Species Army of the OSA. Some said they were even the best. Delta was made up of four individuals, **RC-1138 **also known as **Delta-38** or by his nickname **Boss**, **RC-1140 **also known as **Delta-40 **or by his nickname **Fixer**, **RC-1207** also known as **Delta-07** or by his nickname **Sev**, and **RC-1262** also known as **Delta-62** or by his nickname **Scorch**.

Each member played a specific role on the squad and was equipped with a certain weapon. The favorable weapon of the clone commandos was the **DC-17m Interchangeable Weapon System** (**DC-17m ICWS**), a configurable combat weapons system capable of fulfilling multiple combat roles due to its ability to reconfigure into either a standard blaster assault rifle, a compact sniper rifle, or an anti-armor grenade launcher, depending upon the needs of the user.

Boss was the leader of Delta Squad and served as their sergeant. He utilized the DC-17m blaster assault rifle attachment and two DC-15s side arm blasters.

Fixer was the squad's hacker and tech expert, as well as the second in command. He also utilized the assault rifle attachment but only used one DC-15.

Sev served as the unit's star sniper, so obviously he utilized the Dc-17m sniper rifle attachment and one DC-15s side arm blaster.

Scorch served as the unit's demolition and explosives expert. He used the DC-17m anti-armor grenade attachment and one DC-15s side arm blaster.

Though they all occasionally used the assault rifle attachment, they preferred to use their individual preferred attachments. Which they were now using. Boss had just been contacted by Noble 1 and the squad was listening in.

_"Delta-38, I've got new Intel for you. Your target is a turian air base, more specifically the main hangar where they prep and keep their gunships. We've received Intel that suggests that the turians are prepping their gunships for an airstrike on our Death Watch friends before they continue their attack. Your job is to neutralize those gunships before they can take off by any means necessary."_

"Roger that Noble 1. Consider the enemy's air assets gone," replied Boss. Delta Squad and Noble Team had worked together on co-opt missions before.

_"Hey Delta we'll try not to beat you to badly this time," came the voice of Emile._

"Oh really. Just you wait Emile, this time Delta's gonna make Noble look second-rate," Sev said right back.

_"If you ever manage that I'll hang up me rifle," said Jun over the line._

_"Cut the banter guys we've got work to do and little time to do it in. Good luck Delta, Noble out," said Carter before his hologram deactivated._

"All right Delta if you all want to beat those Spartans this time we got to double time it. Move out!"

* * *

**Gothis Capital City**

**Noble Team**

Noble Team was currently traveling as fast as they could under Active Camouflage. They had so for been able to avoid detection. But the streets were starting to get crowded with turian soldiers. They were getting close. Kat identified a supply depot that they could regroup in and plan their next move. Motion trackers and thermal detection showed that the depot was currently empty. Kat activated a holo-projector showing the layout of the city.

"We're here, she pointed to the depot they were currently in. Our target is here about two blocks away," she pointed at the hologram of the turian tanks they were targeting.

"We won't be able to reach those tanks like this. The streets are crawling with turians and we're pretty close to their front line," said Jun.

"Well bring them on. I prefer a straight up fight to all this sneaking around," replied Emile.

We'd get overrun pretty quickly. And we don't have the firepower to blast ourselves out," said Jorge.

"If I can get to the top of this building here I should be able to see the tank line. I'll use the designator to designate the target. The missiles fire destroying the tanks. Then the Mando's charge and Emile gets to have all the fun he wants," said Kat.

"And how are you going to get up there, the stairs," said Emile sarcastically.

Kat just pointed to her cybernetic arm.

During the Human-Covenant War Kat lost her right arm in the **Battle of Fumirole**. She could have gotten a new flash cloned arm but she refused and got a prosthetic one instead so she could quickly get back in the fight. After the Mon Calamari created the Manta Sub/Frigate from the old _**Young Justice **_show their scientists and engineers also created a new cybernetic arm for her. It was based on the arm Lex Luthor gave to Arsenal. It featured a missile launcher, a grapple, and a powerful laser activated through cylinders inserted in the red ports on the arm. While the technology for prosthetic body parts had come a long way Kat's arm wouldn't fool anyone into thinking it was real flesh. But it was undoubtedly stronger and more versatile than most military prosthetic's.

So Kat activated her active camouflage again and snuck her way to the base of the large building, which was actually an apartment complex. She pointed her cybernetic arm into the air pressing one of the three red ports, the metal hand lowered and a grapple shot out. Kat quickly rose through the air to the top of the building.

Once at the top Kat walked to the ledge and looked out and down at the column of turian tanks. They were almost ready move, but they wouldn't get the chance. Kat took out the H-295 Target Designator, pointed it at the tanks, and pushed the button. The acquired coördinates were then sent back to the missile platform back under the lake.

_"Sierra B320 to platform, sending you targeting coördinates." _

_"Copy B320, stand by. Missiles away."_

* * *

**Gothis Capital City**

**Turian Air Base**

Determined to win the unsaid contest Delta took off towards their objective. For a city on high alert the sector they were in was pretty empty. Boss didn't know whether they were all at the front line or not, but the sight of no enemy's made him uneasy.

As they rounded another corner and ducked into an alley Sev saw a small spherical drone fly just over the buildings on the other side of the street. It was the recon droid he had released earlier. The droid sped over to the squad, stopping right in front of Boss. As it hovered a few feet off the ground, the small droid shone a hologram in front of the sergeant. The hologram was a layout of the hangar they were targeting and the surrounding area.

"Ok lets see what we're up against, said Boss. Looks like they pulled all their people back to the base, that why we haven't seen anyone yet. Plenty of barricades, a couple of defense turrets, and about maybe two hundred turians."

Scorch spoke up. "Just the four of us against two hundred bird heads. We've faced worse," joking and being serious at the same time.

"Those turrets are going to be a real problem though, said Boss. Good thing that the only one's we have to worry about are these two that are positioned on the east security wall. That's where we'll make our entrance. We need to take them out first and fast."

"Good thing I've got the answer to that problem right here," Scorch said as he pulled out and patted a **Wookiee Guided Rocket Launcher**. The gigantic weapon was created by the Master Wookiee Crafters on Kashyyyk. It used guided warhead-tipped rockets and could hold five rockets at a time. The rockets could either be "dumb"-fired or locked onto a target.

"You still carry that thing," said Sev in fake mockery. It was common for him and Scorch to have verbal sparring matches, playfully maintaining a brotherly relationship of back-and-forth teasing and friendly rivalry.

"Laugh it up all you want brother, but there are a lot of problem that can be solved with a good old rocket."

"Cut it out you two, said Boss. " We've still got a job to do and we're running out of time just talking here. Scorch you take that rocket launcher onto the roofs with Sev. Destroy one of the turrets one the west wall while Sev snipes the gunner on the other. Once that's done I'll blow us a hole in the wall and you can meet us on the other side. From there we'll have to fight our way through open ground to the hangar."

"Sounds great," said Fixer.

"Let move Delta, times a wasting."

With a plan formed the team set off to get into position. Sev and Scorch went to the end of the alley where there was a ladder. As they climbed up onto the roofs Boss and Fixer got into a truck that Fixer had hot wired and drove off. After about a quarter of mile they could finally see the base. It looked just like any other typical military base Boss had seen. Surrounded by fences and walls, sentries walking on the catwalk on the walls, a barracks, a vehicle depot, and the hangar where the gunships they were targeting were being prepped.

Boss could see that the sentries had spotted the truck he and Fixer were in when he heard an alarm go off across the base and they rushed to the turrets. The turians turned the turrets to fire at the intruding vehicle, but out of nowhere a rocket flew into one turret, destroying it and its operator. A blaster bolt from a sniper then impacted the other turian right in the head killing him instantly.

Boss didn't even have to look to know that it was Sev and Scorch. Besides he needed to keep his eye's on the road.

"We're getting awfully close Boss," Fixer spoke up as Boss kept driving closer and closer to the west wall.

Boss just said, "Wait for it," and kept on driving.

They got even closer to the wall and now Fixer was really getting nervous as he called again, "Boss!" Boss just took out two thermal detonators, put them on the dashboard, and just kept driving. As it looked like they were going to full on crash into the wall Fixer called out one final time "BOSS!"

At what must have been the last minute Boss threw something heavy down on the gas pedal and shouted "OUT" and then flung himself out the speeding vehicle and proceeded into a roll to lessen the impact of his landing. Fixer followed right behind him. About five seconds later the truck crashed full on into the wall. The vehicle exploded in a fiery blaze creating a noticeable dent. However, it was the thermal detonators that really did the trick. The fusion reaction combined with the intense heat brought the wall crumbling down, created a huge gap for Delta to slip through.

"HAS YOUR BRAIN MELTED BOSS?! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US BOTH!"

"Cut the yakking Fixer, it worked didn't it. Now let's go. We're going to have company real quick."

Boss proved to be right. Not even ten seconds after he and Fixer had entered the grounds of the base they came under heavy fire. Turians came running towards them in droves. All firing their rifles full blaze. Boss and Fixer were stuck out in the open and their shields would only hold for so long. Both Boss and Fixer fired their DC-17m's in blaster assault rifle mode. The turians kinetic barriers did nothing to stop the blaster bolts as they went down with one good shot to the head or two to three shots in the chest area. But this did little to turn the tide. At most it just slowed the horde of angry turians down a little.

Suddenly Boss felt something hit his already tested shields taking them down to 15%. He looked up at where he guessed the shot originated and spotted to snipers on a fire escape. But before either of them could fire another shot and probably finish Boss off they both got a blaster bolt to the head. Boss knew that Sev had once again saved his life.

Turians were still closing in on them and an alarm rang in his helmet telling him that his shields had just failed. Fixer saved both their asses by throwing down a bubble shield. Boss let out a small sigh of relief as he was surrounded by the blue shield. The fire from the turians was having no effect, but Boss and Fixer were able to return fire from the inside since the bubble shield had been upgraded since the Human-Covenant War.

Boss analyzed the situation. His shields had recharged and he and Fixer were safe behind a bubble shield. But the shield wouldn't last forever, Scorch and Sev had yet to reach them, and despite their best efforts the turians were slowly encircling them. All in all, their situation was not good. Delta Squad had never failed a mission, and Boss was determined that this would not be the first. But he still would need a miracle.

A miracle was delivered in the form of a grenade blowing up five turians. Boss turned and was overjoyed to see Scorch holding his DC-17m in its anti-armor mode, smoking from the grenade that was just fired. As the turians turned their attention to Scorch Boss heard a whining sound, like something was powering up. He didn't recognize it but the turians did and they smiled; soon their looks of triumph turned into looks of shock and horror as they were bumped full of high-powered Mass Accelerator rounds. Looking around Boss quickly saw that Sev was operating one of the turians mounted turrets and firing it at the soldiers it was supposed to protect.

The turians scrambled trying to find cover but there wasn't any; they were out in the open with nowhere to go. They almost didn't notice that the bubble shield had broken at last. Scorch quickly threw what must have been every thermal detonator he had into the mob of turians. The result of lots of nuclear fusion explosives going off at the same time not only turned a lot of turians to ashes but also created a smoke cloud.

"COME ON LETS GO, USE THE SMOKE," shouted Boss.

Using the smoke as cover Boss, Fixer, and Scorch bolted towards the hangar. They had used up to much time all ready. Sev continued firing into the smoke cloud until the turret emptied and then changing his sniper rifle into an assault rifle hurried after his brothers.

They managed to make it behind some crates next to one of the hangars side doors. Shots were fired at them as the smoke finally cleared.

"Scorch, get to work on that door. We'll cover you."

Scorch went to work applying thermal detonator tape to the door while Boss and the other provided cover fire. Their initial assault had taken a toll on the turians forces. Two hundred soldiers had been cut down by seventy. But the turians still greatly outnumbered Delta Squad. And the constant barrage of mass effect slugs was tearing up their cover.

Scorch bellowed, "Fire in the hole."

They all braced themselves and five seconds later there was a "BOOM" and the side door was blown to pieces.

"Every body in, said Boss. Scorch you do whatever you have to do and quick. Fixer and I will hold the exit, Sev you cover Scorch."

Scorch looked around as they set to their tasks. Luckily he wasn't under fire just yet because they had entered behind a lot of crates. Rearing around the corner Scorch could see rows of gunships (about 20 in all) being prepped for take off. And it looked like they were just about ready. He could hear shouts of conversation.

_"I heard an explosion. Has the enemy reached the base?_

_"I don't know, but if they have that doesn't spell good for us? _

_"We haven't lost Gothis yet. The gunships are ready for launch. Open the hangar doors and then we'll show them why you don't mess with the Hierarchy._

Scorch took this all in and turned to Fix. " We've got to move now those gunships are about to take off. Take my rocket launcher, it's fully loaded, fire on the support beams while I shot those fuel canisters. If we're lucky this whole place will come down and blow. Mission accomplished."

"Yeah if we don't get berried ourselves."

"Sev, have a little faith will you. I've got an exit plan." Scorch then changed his anti armor rifle back into an assault rifle and pulled out a large detonation pack. He set it for thirty seconds.

"Start shouting as soon as shots are fired." And then he threw the pack at the farthest right wall were it impacted dead center in front of some turian engineers. The pack activated and started counting down.

"NOW." Scorch leaped out of cover and fired his DC-17m Assault Rifle right at the turains closets to the bomb. Gunning them down before they could even draw their pistols. With quick reflexes from years of training and experience he then turned and blasted a stack of fuel canisters, causing an explosion and killing four turians. Scorch ducked into cover behind a gunship as the remaining turians composed themselves and fired at him.

Sev got in on the action and fired a rocket at the left side support column nearest to the hangar doors. The column blew in half. Some turians managed to fire at him before they were forced into cover or killed by Scorch's suppressing fire. Between the two Sev managed to destroy two more columns causing half the hangar's ceiling to break and drop, blocking the hangar doors and keeping any gunships from taking off. Scorch had destroyed most of the fuel canisters, set fire to the hangar, and killed most of the turians.

Another explosion went off and the heat was starting to become unbearable. "Scorch we got to get out of here. The whole place is coming down." Just then the detonation pack Scorch had set went off and blew a big hole in the right wall of the hangar. This also caused the building to become even more unstable.

"Sev get in here." Turning, Sev saw that Scorch had commandeered a turian gunship for them to escape in. Now his plan became clear.

Sev was suddenly grabbed by two pairs of arms. He saw their armor and knew they were Boss and Fixer. "Scorch what are doing standing around? We got to go," said Boss as he and Fixer carried him into the gunship.

As everything started to really collapse the gunship rose from its stationary position and flew out through the wall just as the hangar came crashing down, causing a big explosion and destroying everything in sight.

"YEAH! We did it boys, said Scorch. Do you think we beat Noble team this time. Before Boss could answer a voice came over the comm. that had apparently been listening...

_"Think again Delta Squad. Look for the smoke."_

They recognized the voice of Kat-B320 and looked out the cockpit. In the distance they could see a large trail of smoke. Noble had managed to complete their objective about five minutes before them. The Spartans had beaten them again.

_"Better luck next time Delta Squad."_

* * *

**Gothis**

**Capital City**

The turians were in complete disarray. After the Mako's were destroyed their carefully set up lines were knocked down from the shockwave, and some began to disperse. Seeing the enemy's vulnerability through his electrobinoculars, Jango ordered the attack to continue. Neo-Crusaders rushed forward firing their rifles, taking the enemy by surprise and cutting down any and all in their path. Some wielded vibroswords and got in close and sliced and stabbed the turians to death.

As the start of the assault ended turian snipers and shock troopers appeared of the roofs and in the mid level windows of the buildings. They pored down heavy fire into the streets trying to thin out the huge Mandalorian mass of troops. The assault rifles of the shock troopers was largely inaccurate from their height, but the snipers were able to take out a few Crusaders. However, the Nite Owls (Death Watch's Super Commandos) came flying to their brethren's aid. Some flew to the rooftops dealing with the snipers, other dissented to battle the turian shock troopers. A common mistake was that Super Commandos and Shock Troopers were to different entities. However Super Commandos were actually Mandalorians who whore a variant type of armor called Shock Trooper Armor.

Jango Fett was currently flying to his target, slowly closing in. A squad of twelve turians had been causing some trouble for the east flank and he was the closest flyer around. The Basilisk War Droids hadn't made it that far yet. It was have been foolish to go alone but Jango was worth about twelve men by himself. As he came around the last corner he witnessed a Blue Neo-Crusader get cut down by rifle fire, but no without taking one of the turians with him to the grave.

There were three tuians lined up in the blown out window. Jango knew that he had the element of surprise and he capitalized on it. Coming virtually out of nowhere using his jetpack to increase his speed he landed a flying kick at the turian to the right. He aimed a kick into the back of the turian in the center, sending him falling to death. Out of the corner of his visor Jango saw the third turian draw a knife and attempt to strike him with a downward slash. Jango shifted his weight on his heals and jerked his body to the side avoiding the blow. Jango then proceeded to grab the turians throat and use it as leverage to flip over its back. Still holding on to the appendage Jango put his opponent into a head lock and snapped the turians neck. Looking up after dispatching his opponent Jango saw that the turian he had kicked upon entry had regained himself and was drawing his pistol. Jango however was faster, and quicker than you could see he had his own pistol drawn at level and shot the turian dead in the head.

Sounds of running feet came from the hallway behind the door that was the exit to the room. The remaining turians were coming to him. "Well makes thing easier for me" Jango thought to himself. Drawing his second pistol Jango waited for his enemies to come. And come they did.

The door was busted open and five turians rushed in rifles raised. Only to be meet with a quick death as Jango launched a barrage of blaster bolts from his pistols. Each bolt stuck a different turian at least twice. In no less than five seconds they were all dead. Jango checked his HUD and saw that his last targets were hiding just outside the door hoping to ambush him. Well he would have to disappoint. Getting a thermal detonator from this utility belt Jango powerful enough to destroy the foundation of the building. Usually the time for a thermal blast that powerful would need a five minute charge, but Jango had costume made this grenade to wield that kind of power in five seconds.

He set it, threw it and then took off like the devil himself. When the detonator exploded he was still close enough to feel it. As he looked back he saw half the building destroyed, with the top half crashing onto the street creating a giant roadblock. Jango was broken out of the moment by his communicator.

_"Major sir. The UNSC entered the battle thirty minutes ago from Delta Squad's last position. The turians thwarted and most have laid down their arms. All that remains is to search for those that have gone into hiding. We've won sir, the day is ours."_

Excellent! Meet with the UNSC and set up a FOB (Forward Operating Base) in the center of the city. I want anti-air and armor guns set up over the city. And see to it that the men organize the prisoners then send them to the camps."

_"Copy that sir."_

Jango reflected upon the day. It had only taken three hours to achieve victory. Though it might still be sometime before the OSA had full control of the planet. In all hindsight, it was a quick victory. "I hope General Grievous had a tougher time then we did. Though that's unlikely. How much trouble come some four eyed pirates be?"

* * *

**A/N: I'VE FINALLY FINISHED!**

**That's right I'm back everyone. A THOUSAND apologies for how long this took. I meant to have this chapter up earlier but I got caught up with my Summer job, family, and other things. I shall do my best to ensure that the next chapter doesn't take as long.**

**So the Gothis arc is underway. I know you all didn't get to see much of Noble team, but I promise they shall return. **

**For those of you who wondered about the Mandalorians looking so much like humans, I hope this answered your questions.**

**What is General Grievous up to? You'll have to read the next chapter to find out. **

**My poll for adding the Chiss is still up. Please vote.**

**I'm going go see Pacific Rim this week. I've been waiting since the first commercial for this.**

**I would like to find a way to add the movie or parts of it to this story if it's any good. If anyone has any ideas how I can do that please contact me or write it in a review.**


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